Marriage of Figaro 18th Century

Marriage of Figaro

18th Century Noble Life

The objective of this work is to read "Marriage of Figaro: written by Beaumarchais and place the play within the historical context of noble life in the late 18th Century through making a comparison to the play with "Travels in France." Compared will be Young's account of French city and country life and Beaumarchias' characterization of the nobility and the countryside.

The play entitled: "Marriage of Figaro" was written by Pierre de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) a French playwright. this play is in the time period setting of the 18th Century, specifically the Count Almaviva's castle in Seville. The work of Arthur Young: "Travels in France" also gives a glimpse into the 18th century politics and social aspects and interactions between the nobility and the poor. In each of the works the self-absorbed nature of the nobility are described as well as the conditions of those unfortunate enough to be poor.

Beaumarchias: The Nobility and the Countryside

The nobility are portrayed by Beaumarchias as being a tawdry and faithless group of individuals who live their life in pursuit of that which pleasures them while the countryside is seen as a place of clean and healthy air. The nobility are frivolous individuals who spend all day chasing each other amorously around hiding behind chairs, in closets and many times more than one hopeful lover hiding in the same room from the significant 'other' of the one they are courting. The countryside, however, is portrayed as a wholesome and clean place without the trappings and deceit of the life of the nobility.

Susanna, the bride-to-be of Figaro who is being pursued by the Count in Scene Nine the "Recitativ and Aria" states of the countryside that:

The earth and the sky, seem

To echo the fire of love

Here murmers the stream, here sports the breeze

Which refreshes the heart with its sweet whispers.

Here flowers smile and the grass is cool;

Young: Travels in France and the City and Country Life Described

Young states that while London is portrayed as clean that Paris is dirty and crowded. Young states: "This great city [Paris] appears to be in many respects the most ineligible and inconvenient for the residence of a person of small fortune of any that I have seen, and vastly inferior to London. The streets are very narrow, and many of them crowded, nine tenths dirty, and all without foot pavements. Walking, which in London is so pleasant and so clean that ladies do it every day, is here a toil and a fatigue to a man, and an impossibility to a well-dressed woman." (Young, 1792; as cited in Readings of European History, 1906)

Young states that he has even see a 'poor' child run over and killed by the young rich nobility who ride at fast speeds and carelessly in the streets of Paris. Young however, speaks of the countryside as an ordered and lovely place as he states: "A succession of many well-built, tight, and comfortable farming cottages, built of stone and covered with tiles; each having its little garden, enclosed by clipped thorn hedges, with plenty of peach and other fruit trees, some fine oaks scattered in the hedges, and young trees nursed up with so much care that nothing but the fostering attention of the owner could effect anything like it. To every house belongs a farm, perfectly well enclosed, with grass borders mown and neatly kept around the cornfields, with gates to pass from one enclosure." (Young, 1792; as cited in Readings of European History, 1906)