Ben Jonson sets the tone for Volpone; Or, The Fox in his "Dedication" to the play:

wherein I have laboured...to reduce not only the ancient forms, but manners of the scene, the easiness, the propriety, the innocence, and last, the doctrine, which is the principal end of poesie, to inform men in the best reason of living.

In other words, Jonson intended to write a morality play, in the "ancient" sense, derived from classic Greek tragic plays (and not unmindful of medieval morality plays)—plays that were written to teach a moral lesson to the audience. Rather than write a tragic play in "the ancient form," however, Jonson writes his morality play in the form of a comedy (a form that Aristotle found far inferior to Greek tragedy) and which the leaders of the medieval Church certainly frowned upon.

In Poetics, Aristotle writes that comedy imitates "the action of men worse than ourselves" and that comic plays lack pathos (suffering) through which the audience can experience catharsis (i.e., an emotional release of pity and fear at the suffering of the tragic hero). Aristotle conceded, however, that a comic play can teach a moral lesson, and Jonson addresses this issue in the "Prologue" of the play:

In all his poems still hath been this measure,
To mix profit with your pleasure.

Jonson's purpose in writing Volpone was to expose the immorality, greed, and corruption of Jacobean London. He hoped to enlighten and educate his audience about the corruption while at the same time entertain them. Jonson's idea of justice is poetic justice—the "tables are turned"—and characters reap the punishment they deserve. What they did to others happens to themselves.

Voltore is representative of the corrupt Venetian justice system. He personifies hypocrisy and deceit, and Jonson uses him to show that the people in a society who should be the most trustworthy can often be the most corrupt. The ruthless deceiver Voltore is deceived by the even more ruthless and malicious Mosca, banished from Venice, and sent to the monastery of San Spirito.

Mosca is a master manipulator, overconfident and greedy, who manipulates Volpone. Mosca underestimates Volpone and is, in turn, manipulated by him. Mosca is exposed for who and what he is, dragged out to be whipped, and then sent to row in the galleys for the rest of his life for acting as Volpone's trickster.

Volpone's money is confiscated and given to a hospital for incurables, and Volpone is sent to prison to suffer the same illnesses he feigned to cheat people out of their money:

AVOCATORI, 1:
And, since the most was gotten by imposture,
By feigning lame, gout, palsy, and such diseases,
Thou art to lie in prison, cramp'd with irons,
Till thou be'st sick, and lame indeed.