The Pot of Gold has a dense and close-knit structure. The play has a single plot which develops in a most convincing manner without any deviations or digressions. It has a single and simple theme, namely the ‘folly of human avarice and miserliness’; and the play has largely been built around one character, namely Euclio, who is the focus of most of our attention.
Euclio is the central character in the play; and in portraying him, the author has satirized the twin follies of stinginess and an obsession with wealth. The play has a moral which is stated at the end by another character, namely Megadorus, who is important next only to Euclio.
All the situations and events in the play are intended to ridicule the two follies of Euclio. Nothing hinders the progress of the plot which moves forward at a brisk pace and which continues to hold our attention throughout.
All the preliminary facts necessary to our understanding of the initial situation in the play have been stated in the form of a prologue by a character called ‘Lar Familiaris’.
After these facts have been brought to our notice, the play gathers speed, with Euclio scolding and rebuking his house-keeper, Staphyla, on the purely imaginary ground that she has come to know of his pot of gold and that she has even told his neighbours about it. Thus, the very first situation in the play exposes the central character's over-suspicious nature and his unreasonableness. While leaving his house for a little while, Euclio gives strict instructions to his house-keeper to keep a watch over everything in the house and not to open the door to anybody.
These instructions emphasize Euclio's anxiety about the safety of his pot of gold and serve only to amuse us. The next situation introduces the other important character in the play. This character is Megadorus, who is being urged by his sister to get married.
Megadorus tells his sister that he would like to marry Euclio's daughter, Phaedria. After his sister has left, Megadorus enters into a conversation with Euclio who happens to meet him. Megadorus offers to marry Euclio's daughter; and Euclio lays down the condition that Megadours should not demand a dowry. This situation further confirms Euclio's miserliness, and also his pretence of poverty even though he owns a lot of wealth in the form of a pot full of gold coins.
Then Euclio is shown as hiding his pot of gold first in the shrine of Good Faith and then in the grove of Silvanus, with the slave watching Euclio and resolving to steal the treasure. Next, we find Euclio discovering his loss and lamenting it. At this point, Lyconides encounters Euclio and confesses his guilt in having seduced Euclio's daughter. Ultimately, acting under the advice and guidance of his uncle Megadorus, Lyconides restores the pot of gold to Euclio and obtains Euclio's consent to his marrying Euclio's daughter.
Thus every event and incident in the play helps the onward movement of the plot which reaches its climax in Euclio's giving away his treasure to Lyconides because he feels that the treasure is not worth all the trouble and botheration which one has to undergo to save it from being stolen.
At the end, Megadorus states briefly and neatly, the lesson of the play. It is a lesson which Euclio has learnt through his personal experience. It is to be noted also that Lyconides' seduction of Euclio's daughter and his decision to try to marry that girl have skilfully been interwoven with the story of Euclio's miserliness and avarice, and his transformation at the end.
All the events and the dialogues of the play occur close to the houses of Euclio and Megadorus who are neighbours. The shrine of Good Faith, where Euclio hides his pot of gold on the first occasion, is situated between those houses. When Euclio decides to take his treasure to the grove of Sylvanus, he is not shown going there actually or hiding his treasure there nor is the slave shown actually taking out Euclio's treasure from where Euclio has hidden it, so that unity of place is in no way violated. Nor are we actually taken to the market where Euclio goes to buy the provisions for the wedding feast and from where he returns empty-handed.
As for the unity of time, the entire action of the play takes only a few hours. The action begins in the morning when Euclio is scolding and rebuking his house-keeper and when, a few moments later, Eunomia comes to see her brother Megadorus.
The play ends a few hours later probably by the noon or in the afternoon when the wedding feast at Euclio's house is ready. The unity of action is evident from the fact that the author concentrates his attention on a single theme, building the play around its central personage, with hardly any digression (unless Euclio's quarrel with Congrio be regarded as a digression). Actually there is not a single incident which is not closely related to the progress of the plot.
The use of comic irony in this play is most conspicuous in the dialogue which takes place between Euclio and Lyconides when Lyconides is accosted by Euclio and asked who he is. In the course of this dialogue, every remark made by each of the two characters means one thing for him and something absolutely different for the other man.
We, the readers or the audience, understand exactly what each of the two speakers means; but each of the speakers means something entirely different from what his listener takes him to mean. Here we feel greatly amused by the misinterpretation by each of the persons of every remark made by the other person. Thus, when Lyconides says that the wicked deed, which is causing Euclio so much distress, had been committed by himself (that is, by Lyconides), Lyconides means to say that he had seduced Euclio's daughter and that he is, therefore, responsible for all Euclio's distress. Lyconides makes this remark because he thinks that Euclio is feeling miserable on account of his daughter's pregnancy and the delivery which is imminent.
Thus there is comic irony behind Megadorus's remark. Then there is a striking use of comic irony in a dialogue which takes place between Euclio and Lyconides., In the course of this dialogue, Euclio completely misunderstands what Lyconides says; and Lyconides completely misunderstands what Euclio says. We, the readers or the audience; know what each of these two persons means by his remarks but the two characters themselves misunderstand each other's remarks. Lyconides all the time thinks that Euclio is referring to his daughter's pregnancy without her having been married, while in actual fact Euclio is referring to his pot of gold.
Similarly, Lyconides, in all his remarks, refers to his seduction of Euclio's daughter, while Euclio thinks that Lyconides is confessing his guilt in having stolen the pot of gold about which Lyconides, in fact, knows nothing. This whole dialogue is among the chief sources of comedy in the play.
There are other cases in which also the use of irony by the author amuses us greatly. On two occasions, once in the shrine of Good Faith and then in the grove of Silvanus, Euclio expresses his confidence that he is hiding his pot of gold at a place where nobody can find it. But each time the slave overhears Euclio's plan and decides to steal the pot of gold.
There is comic irony in both these situations because of the contrast between Euclio's ignorance of the slave's presence nearby and our awareness of the slave's presence.
There is similar irony later in the answers which the slave gives to Euclio's questions after the pot of gold has been restored to Euclio. There is plenty of humour in the situation in which Euclio gives a beating to Congrio under the wrong impression that Congrio has stolen his pot of gold. There is comic irony behind this situation also because we know that Congrio is a cook, not a thief. The quarrel that takes place between the two men is very amusing for us indeed.
The scene in which Euclio gives a beating to the slave is also very amusing.
We feel greatly amused by the manner in which the slave describes his own character and by the manner in which he makes his plans for stealing Euclio's pot of gold.
Even Megadorus's sister Eunomia contributes somewhat to the humour of the play by her overbearing manner and her categorical tone of speaking to her brother. She also amuses us by her criticism of the female sex when she tells her brother that no woman can be the best woman known to him because every woman is worse than all, others in some way or the other.
The Pot of Gold has, indeed, a specific moral lesson to teach us. Ordinarily, a literary writer does not state the moral of his work in explicit terms. A literary writer leaves it to the readers to draw the moral from the particular work which he has written with a moral purpose. In many cases, a writer does not have a specific moral lesson to convey to the reader because his only object in writing a literary work is to please or delight the readers.
But sometimes a writer does have a specific moral in view. Even in such cases, a writer may convey the moral to the reader only indirectly or in a veiled manner.
The Pot of Gold has, however, a specific moral which has been stated at the end in specific terms. This moral is stated by Megadorus when he says:
"Contentment, peace of mind, and sound sleep at night are worth more than a dozen pots of gold".
What Megadorus means to say is that money and gold should not be hoarded or cherished for their own sake and that, if the possession of money and gold endangers a man's peace of mind and his sleep, such money or gold is not worth having. Megadorus states this moral on the basis of what Euclio has said to explain why he has handed over his pot of gold to his would-be son-in-law, Lyconides. Euclio has said that he would like his money to go where it can do some gold.