Although Tonino is described in the character list as ‘the
clever twin,’ his actions align more with foolishness than cleverness. Tonino believes that he is being clever when
he asks Florindo to call him Zanetto in order to conceal his true identity. Of course he has no idea that Zanetto is also
in Verona, but he does not seem to have any problems or moral issues with
masking his identity.
Tonino’s one little lie caused heartache for Rosaura and
Beatrice and the death of Zanetto and Pancrazio. This may seem harsh on Tonino, but imagine
what probably would have taken place had he not lied about his identity. There would not be mass confusion and the
whole fiasco could have been avoided.
He is attributed with cleverness and even claims that he
knows his “way around the world a little better” than Zanetto. Shouldn’t a clever man know that deception
and mistaken identity can have severe consequences? Perhaps Tonino serves to illustrate to the
audience that even the cleverest of people can make bad decisions that impact
the people around them. He continues to
play along in his disguise, even when he is in situations where he is
completely clueless.
As Emily pointed out in her post, Frye claims that “comedy
is designed not to condemn evil, but to ridicule a lack of self-knowledge.” Tonino clearly fits this description because
he cannot see how his little lie is affecting everyone around him. His oblivious attitude, at least until the
end, is comic yet frustrating to watch because as the audience, we see the big
picture. At the end, he is not condemned
because of his deception, and with the exception of his brother being dead,
things seem to be working out in Tonino’s favor, thus fulfilling the given definition
of comedy.
Well done, Miss Bell. I do believe that you have provided an apt analysis of Tonino. This was a view of the play that I had not considered when trying to come up with a topic for my post. I suggest that you, if you have not already, read the post by Stevan Hartman. It seems to me that both of you are thinking along the same lines.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of The Pregnant Farmer from our last set of plays. The scene between the doctor and the farmhand showed how ignorance (the farmhand, or possibly in this case, Zanetto) could actually triumph over cleverness (the doctor, or Tonino). This could be a running theme in comedy, possibly? The thought that a higher power, an arrogant person, etc., is the truly ignorant party.
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestions on how the arrogant persona could really be the ignorant one. This fits Pancrazio as well because he always thought that he was the smart one, trying to chase ignorant Zanetto away, but when confronted by Tonino, he tried to escape through suicide, the most foolish choice of all.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I think it is indeed logical to say that Tonino's little lie caused the resolution of the play, even the death of Zanetto. But it was also because of his disguise that he was able to find out that Rosaura was her own sister. If the real Zanetto was the one who heard about Rosaura's story from Columbia he might never have figured out that Rosaura was her own sister and might ended up marrying her which would be really awful.
ReplyDelete