Prodanovic 1

Nevena Prodanovic
THEA 501
Calvin MacClean
September 9, 2014

Assignment #1: Mirandolina: The Mistress of the Inn

Before we start discussing the play itself, it is important to understand the milieu in which
Carlo Goldoni, the author of this comedy, lived, worked and how it probably helped him become
one of the most appreciated Italian writers of all times. It has happened more than few times
throughout the history of mankind that the most successful artists had their vicious adversaries
who did influence each others work; making them sometimes working and fighting harder for
their ideas. Goldoni has its own counterpoint Count Carlo Gozzi. Its not an unexpected
occurrence that the authors biggest rival was a member of the social structure that was chiefly
criticized in the plays of Carlo Goldoni. He was the thorn in Count Carlo Gozzis side that often
publicly provoked and attacked him, mostly because of the fact that the Count and the majority
of the Venetian aristocracy of the time (both new and old) could easily identify with ridiculed
characters in the plays. Goldoni was the one to introduce the reform of the Italian theatre of the
eighteenth century - one more reason to cause the rage of his enemies. He dared to provide some
space on the stage for the common people, giving them a chance to show how present and alive
they are in spite of the constant scorn by the upper class members. One of the sayings from
Heinz Reidts book on the life and work of Goldoni emphasizes the reasons for the turmoil of his
rival, Gozzi did not wish to see the reality on stage. He wanted just the opposite, because the

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general public, namely the people, must not be stimulated or encouraged to think about the
present (39).
Goldoni engaged himself in breaking up the long history of using masks as a way of
depicting characters. He wanted the actors to interact more profoundly with the play and the
audience through the play.
The story about the authors attitude towards Venetian social stratification is important
because the play starts with the dispute between two typical characters from the Venetian high
class; there pops up the first theme that will follow us throughout the entire text money the
ultimate instrument of dominance among eighteen century people and all before and after them.
This intense introduction prepares the ground for the entire sequel of intense emotional
arguments on freedom, love, hatred, deception, seduction, treason, unreal expectations, envy,
jealousy, etc.
All the characters primarily emit an intensive life force within every single one of their
reactions and thoughts. They strongly stand up for their beliefs no matter whether they are
talking about money, love or hatred. Therefore, Ripafrattas sayings about woman-haters are as
strong and decisive as for example - Mirandolinas monologue:
I would use all the arts of my sex to conquer the men who disdain and deny us women--the angry, unthinking, presumptuous men of the world. It is time to take a stand, to bring
them to their knees, to devastate them, to force them to acknowledge that we women are
the best thing that Mother Nature ever put on this earth. To the kitchen! (Goldoni, 50)
It shows her determination with almost no chances of failure - as if the Cavaliere di
Ripafratta was doomed - or anyone else standing in her way. It turns out that she was wrong, and
that she miscalculated the boundaries she could cross. In the end, she ends up marrying her
servant Fabrizio in order to regain her shaken sense of freedom while doing exactly the opposite

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thing of the one that she was preaching about just some 100 pages before. The Marchese and the
Count can also be incorporated in the character determination scheme, but with different goals as Riedt mensiones:
Two nobleman come to court her, not because they want to marry her, God forbid (that
would be improper, and unthinkable, a social abyss lies between them), but because they
are on the lookout for adventure, for a relationship without consequences, for an easy
prey. (84).
They continue being persistent even when she announces her future marriage.
In the context of essential message of the play I am not really able to decide between the
subtle notion within the text that every human being needs to love and be loved and on the other
side, that all the sorts of emotional manipulations depicted in this play can also be very precise
tool to express the sense of how a person should and shouldnt behave. What remained unclear to
me are the reasons and the source of this behavior by Mirandolina. Was it a simple caprice or
intense longing for the affection? Was it her choice for freedom or just the situation she found
herself in and she fought it the best she could?
Mirandolina is presented as a strong, independent young woman, almost alone in the
world after the death of her father. She seems to be a personification of a new rising mid-class
called bourgeoisie, which is still struggling for its position in the community. She is left to fight
with an all-male society where a woman has no or very few rights. And she does. She fights
back. She is good at it. She knows how to read and write, which is pretty surprising for a woman
of the era and most important of all, she knows how to seduce. It seems that her freedom is
whats most important to her. That is the card that she plays on the Cavaliere di Ripafratta; thats
how she gains his trust and eventually makes him to fall in love with her. In the end she decides

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to hear her fathers last wish and finally marry Fabrizio in order to keep her freedom, though
clearly marrying him only because its the lesser evil.
Everything in this play is about the seduction. From the main plot of Mirandolina
seducing Cavaliere di Ripafratta, through the Marchese who is seduced by Mirandolina, other
peoples money and his own past and Count Albafiorita who is also interested in Mirandolina,
and at the same time under the spell of his own fortune and thinks that the entire world is his just
because of his money. In the end, maybe even the most importantly of all - Goldoni seduces us
with the colorful and spirited characters that drive us through the play from the beginning.

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Bibliography

Goldoni, Carlo. Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni: Written by Himself. Ed. William A. Drake. Trans.
John Black. New York & London: Alfred A. Knoph, 1926. Print.
Goldoni, Carlo. Mirandolina: The Mistress of the Inn. Trans. Stephen Wadsworth. Stephen
Wadsworth Zinsser, 1995. Print.
Goldoni, Carlo. The Venetian Twins; Mirandolina: Two Plays by Carlo Goldoni. Trans. Ranjit
Bolt. Bath, England: Absolute Classics, 1993. Print.
Hunter, Mead. Not Exactly Disney: Gozzis The Blue Monster. Theatre 20.1 (1988): 29-37.
Web. 6 September 2014.
Johnson, James H.. Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic. Berkeley, CA, USA:
University of California Press, 2011. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 6 September 2014.
Kennard, Joseph Spencer. Goldoni and the Venice of His Time. 1920. New York: Benjamin
Blom, 1967. Print.
Riedt, Heinz. Carlo Goldoni. Trans. Ursule Molinaro. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing
Co., 1974. Print.