| God and Religion
“All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing and then made me mute.” Salieri
In Amadeus Shaffer investigates the question “if there is a God, why is he so uncaring?” Salieri enters into a pact with God – if God enables him to become a great and famous composer he will “in return live a life of virtue… and I will honour you with much music in all the days of my life”. Instead it is the immoral, childlike Mozart, who in Salieri’s eyes, is blessed by God, while he is left to question, God’s existence.
The tragedy of Salieri’s character is that he, almost exclusively, can see the genius of Mozart’s gift even though his contemporaries fail to. While those at court criticize Mozart’s compositions for having “too many notes”, his genius is all too painfully clear to Salieri.
At the same time Salieri is also forced to question the motivation of God. Confronted by the fact that God is not bribed by virtue, nor does he use the rules of religious convention to choose who shall receive these gifts. Salieri is forced not only to question the caring nature of God but also why if good does exist, is he selfish and uncaring, why does he work in ways that are incomprehensible. Salieri is unable to reconcile this new God with the God he has thus far dedicated his life to.
If God either does not exist or is an uncaring selfless God then conventional rules of behavior no longer need to be followed. Envy and anger towards God push Salieri into his murderous plot. Yet when he succeeds his pain and contrition at his actions gives him no peace, he retains the desire for deliverance and still desires the comfort of belief in a divine God.
Salieri’s actions mirror those of society, who often turn against gifted, figures that highlight their own sterile social and religious conventions. Unable to understand God’s choice they choose instead to destroy the unconventional and challenging in order to restore the conventional. Shaffer contrasts Salieri’s dry, conventional, mediocre talent with Mozart’s fertile genius. His superiority to others belies his pain at realizing Mozart’s talent is greater than his own. His confusion over God’s actions and his inability to understand them forces him to confront the possibility of an uncaring God who leaves his people to suffer. Yet it is when Salieri leaves behind virtue and God that his own suffering begins.
Salieri’s vanity means he is unable to accept that the fame he has worked so hard for and entered into a pact with God for is about to be disappear. His desire for fame corrupts his character. He achieves the fame he bargained with God for but at a price. Ironically, while Mozart struggles for both patronage and fame Salieri has both – only he sees and suffers from the realization that God has chosen outside religious conventions.
Salieri rages against God for breaking a bargain that was never accepted.
Beauty
Salieri appreciated the beauty of music at a young age and describes it as ‘God’s art’. He wants to be God’s instrument, producing beautiful music to celebrate his glory.
Unfortunately, he finds real beauty in Mozart’s music and cannot help but respond to it.
Beauty becomes linked with destruction.
Duty and Responsibility
Duty and responsibility is one of the ways in which the contrast between Mozart and Salieri is brought out.
Salieri restrains himself from his temptation to commit adultery with Katherina and does good works to prove his worthiness.
Mozart has affairs with his pupils and is very playful, he has little sense of duty.
The abandonment of duty and responsibility also illustrates the change in Salieri as he loses faith with God and formulates his plan to destroy Mozart.
Betrayal
Salieri feels betrayed by God as he decides God granted Mozart inspiration and true musical talent, although he had promised to serve him and use such a gift for his glory.
He therefore, betrays Mozart, often pretending to be interested in helping him whilst actually betraying him by getting his opera cancelled and recommending other people for jobs.
Justice and Injustice
God considers Salieri to be unjust and risks damnation to exact his own ‘justice’ on Mozart.
He also thinks that in his turn God extracted ‘justice’ on Salieri. Salieri enjoys popularity although he knows his music is mediocre and he alone appreciates Mozart’s genius. Then as people begin to love Mozart’s music, Salieri is no longer popular.
Father/Son Conflict
The father/son conflict is typical of Shaffer’s plays.
Salieri and God have such a relationship, God is his spiritual father and Salieri turns to him for success in music, later feeling betrayed that Mozart is more talented.
Mozart’s father, Leopold, is never seen, but Mozart is afraid of him and his father is important to him. When he hears of his death he collapses and he often thinks about his father’s reaction to the things he does eg his marriage to Constanze.
Mozart bases the ghost in Don Giovanni on his father.
Mozart needs a father figure and to some extend Salieri becomes that person reducing Mozart to a childlike state in their final encounter.
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