Zanetto: The Death of Innocence

I love you so much; without you I'm like a bird

without a nest, a rooster without a hen, a stallion without a mare, a

little pig without his own little sow. It's true, darling, I love you, I

want to throw myself in the ocean of your beauty and drown, I want

to splash around in your sweetness like a water bird in a lake, I want

to stir up the dust of your affection, like, um, like a donkey kicking up

sand in the desert.

These are the lines of poor love struck Zanetto, easily the most pitiable character in the play. Zanetto is  the foolish twin. He doesn't know much about matters of love or possess any common sense for that matter, but out of all the characters in the play, he is the most honest. His brother Tonino, while he obviously has more sense, is shrewder and more willing to take advantage of others. He has obviously already done so by having Beatrice abandon her family to meet him in another city, potentially putting her honor at stake, and he is willing to take his twin's jewels and money, knowing they aren't his, even if he claimed it was only to find out the real owner of the jewels. He used them for his own advantage when he needed them, gentleman or not.

Zanetto, on the other hand, is honest the entire play, even if it is out of foolishness. His motives are bared for all to see and finding a loving wife is his only goal, with no dark dishonest intention behind it. He is bluntly honest with Rosaura with his desire for sex right at the beginning of the play, saying, "The best time is right now." He is even honest later when he states his intentions of marrying both Beatrice and Rosaura because he does not know it is illegal to have two wives. Other characters in the play fully seek to take advantage of his simple nature, including his would be father-in-law. "Daughter dear, be discreet. He's a bit of a fool, but he's filthy rich." Poor Zanetto is so honest himself that he never suspects Pancrazio of giving him advice and later poisoning him. He even chooses to believe that the poison is working to make him alluring to women as he knows he is dying, ever the fool to the end.

To add insult to injury, Zanetto goes un-mourned at the end of the play, underappreciated and unwanted. Oh sure, Tonino drops a few lines pretending to care that Zanetto is dead, but he just got to inherit all his brother's fortune, including the jewels and money he so gentlemanly took earlier in the play. Tonino is happily going to be married to Beatrice, Rosauro has discovered her true identity and is going to be married to another, and even Zanetto's servant  Arlecchino has run away without giving him a second thought. Though the play is a comedy, it has a slightly dark flavoring at the end with the most trusting and pure character dead and forgotten for at the end. Innocence has died, and everybody is too busy celebrating their own gains to care.