Amadeus Influential Values

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Amadeus Influential Values

Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus presents to the reader many human values. The most prominent being envy, deceit and self-sacrifice. During the course of the play these features are displayed through Salieri’s actions, emotions and dialogue.

The relationship between Salieri and Mozart is like a painting, commencing with splattered envy after Mozart’s extordinary musical talents disrupt Salieri’s clean, white, sanity. Splatters become blotches when Mozart uses Salieri’s “prize pupil” (33), Katherina Cavalieri, to fulfill his professional and sexual aspirations. Covered in thick, black envy, Salieri seeks lust to better himself than his opponent: “As I watched her walk away on the arm of the creature, I felt the lightning thought strike – ‘Have her! Her for Katherina’ … Abomination! … Never in my life had I entertained a notion so sinful!” (39). The paper then turns black as Salieri’s “wanted fame” (16) is enveloped by Mozart’s egotistical and immature personality. As a piece of recycled paper, Salieri begins his murder “at least not in life. In Art it was a different matter” (35).

The buildup of Salieri’s destructible envy is used to sculpt his evil character and ultimately lead to his master plans of deceit. But not all of Salieri’s deceit is put together into one action, it is portrayed through several evil schemes that end up composing the murder of Mozart. Salieri treats Mozart as a friendly individual from the start and even compliments about how his music “at its best is truly charming” (37) and what a “remarkable memory” (34) he has. This only tricks Mozart and allows for Salieri to proceed with his first step of deceit, sleeping with his lovely wife, Constanze. Although he never ...

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...art and Salieri. Lost in his own enigma, Salieri projects a clear look at the downfall of his sacrifice upon Mozart: “He sat at home preparing his own destruction. A home where life grew daily more grim” (86).

The three primary human values in this play, envy, deceit and self-sacrifice are the clay of the story. Salieri takes this clay and uses it as a weapon to destroy Mozart in several different ways. This is clearly shown through his lies, passive-aggressive attacks and cunning tricks that slowly deteriorate Mozart’s small barrier of protection and lead to his death. After Mozart was deceased, the clay did not disintegrate as expected, but instead it expanded and clung to Salieri with such force that it ended up killing him as well, rather than molding him in to a better being.

Bibliography:

Shaffer, Peter. Amadeus. London: Penguin Books, 1993.

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