h

h

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Peter Shaffer's Amadeus

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2015

Read a Play

Peter Shaffer's Amadeus


Years ago in high school I watched the film adaptation of this play. It was wonderful. I remember absolutely loving Mozart and his character. He was so lively and funny, if not extremely vulgar. His character is so great because in my opinion, there is nothing as interesting as reading about a real life person who had a life as interesting as any fiction. Mozart truly had a personality and life that a writer only dreams of coming up with himself. People rarely see a man of his age that acts so much like a child. Perhaps Mozart was suffering with the same types of things as our current child celebrities suffer with. It seems like when a essential part of ones childhood is missing, that person goes on to be  perpetual child. 

I will have to say that I enjoyed the movie much better than the book. I think this was only because I don't necessarily care for the style of written plays. It is a little tedious to read all of the set and character names. It is also hard to get a feel for emotion. This play however was able to make me feel emotion more than any other I've ever read. The movie was triumphant also in the fact that it had brilliant casting and I will never be able to get the image of Mozart acting inappropriately with his wife out of my head even though it has been years since I've seen it. 

Peter Shaffer's exploration of God in this play really intrigues me. One of the main characters, Salieri, believes that because he is a good and virtuous man, that he deserves to be a great composer. He is shocked when he finds out that God has bestowed the gift he desires on a infantile man like Mozart. From then on, Salieri will stop at nothing to ruin the instrument of God (Mozart), and thus beat God at his own game. I love the themes that this problem presents as many people now-days struggle with the question of why God isn't providing for them even though they seem to be a good person. Why would God give all the gifts to the terrible men of the world? In the conclusion to the play, Salieri discovers that by damning Mozart to a life of poverty he has created his own worst nightmare. Salieri proved that he was in fact not a virtuous man at all and was therefore not worthy of God's gifts.

If you enjoy plays, Mozart, or the movie I would certainly recommend reading this play. It is short and easy and definitely worth the time spent.

“What use, after all, is man, if not to teach God His lessons?” 
― Peter ShafferAmadeus

No comments:

Post a Comment