Script Analysis - Becca
Script Analysis - Becca
Plot Overview
Published in 1524, Mandragola is a comedic piece that offers a glance into the world of Machiavelli. The play's action takes place in the span of 24 hrs, which is in alignment with the concept of Unity of Time in this time period. It is the story of Callimaco, a young Florentine from Paris. One day he overheard a fellow Florentine tell the Parisians about a woman of extraordinary beauty in Tuscany. Compelled to see her for himself, Callimaco returned to Florence. Once he witnessed her beauty he was determined to have her at any cost. However, there are several problems with his plan. The first is that the woman, Lucrezia, is married and the second that her virtue seems above reproach. Callimaco enlists the help of Ligurio, a rascally marriage broker. Ligurio devises plans to allow Callimaco to have his infatuous moment with Lucrezia.
Pretending to be a doctor, Callimaco assures Nicia, who has not yet produced an heir, that the ingestion of a potion made from the mandrake root will result in pregnancy. Nicia accepts the advice, complete with the condition that the first man to sleep with the woman who takes the potion will die the next day. With Nicia's money, Ligurio and Callimaco easily enlist the help of the friar. Friar Timoteo, with added encouragement from Lucrezia’s mother. convinces the unwilling Lucrezia that it would be best to take the potion and sleep with another man first. Nicia is then persuaded to capture a young man (Callimaco in disguise) in the street at night. The affair goes according to plan. Nicia, however, is ignorant to the fact that the potion was simply a ploy to allow another man to sleep with his wife. Worse yet for Nicia, he is also unaware of the fact that this plot was revealed to his wife the morning after and she has happily accepted Callimaco as her lover.
Fraud=Good
The most significant theme throughout the play is the use of fraud to obtain one’s desire. As long as the cause is worthwhile, Machiavelli relays that fraud is a valid strategy. Each person is driven by their desires: Nicia by his desire to have an heir, Ligurio to get some kind of profit out of the deal, Callimaco to get the girl, Sostrata to have a grandchild, Lucrezia to have a child and follow the will of God, and Timoteo to make a profit by being shrewder than everyone else. In order to fulfill these desires, the characters use cunning and deception.
In Mandragola, fraud prevails over force, in this case the forces of religion and morality. In the latter, because of the stupidity of Messer Nicia, who is easily manipulated into performing this ploy. In the case of the Friar, the promise of money is all that it takes to earn his assistance. It is likely that when the play was first performed, the scenario of the contemptible priest was very amusing as a commentary on the current state of affairs in Florence. Everyone achieves their respective goals by taking advantage of each other's desires. Machiavelli makes it clear that this is not only acceptable, but also the desired ending, judging from the rejuvenated characters at the end.
The question of whether Mandragola should be read strictly as a comedy or whether Machiavelli wrote it as an allegory is a source of much disagreement. In the preface to his translation, Peter Bondanella writes that "although some critics have attempted to reduce this marvelous comedy to the status of a political allegory…none of Machiavelli's contemporaries (i.e Those best qualified to notice any allegorical content) viewed the play in this light; they all considered it as an exemplary neoclassical comedy, intended solely to delight without containing a political message."
The Man, the Myth, Machiavelli
Italy did not follow the rest of continental Europe to feudalism, having instead independent city-states that stimulated an influx of new ideas from its citizens. The humanists were faced with the difficulties of creating a humanist republic in which to “universality of values into a finite and specific governmental structure” (Frye, 181). A popular political thought of the time was that a state constructed poorly will fail to flourish. Machiavelli believed that the early constitutional reforms of Rome were akin to sailors rebuilding a poor ship in the open ocean (Frye, 182). A common view during this time period was the idea that Fortune was in control of one’s life. Machiavelli, however, would not succumb to this opinion, adamant that “fortune is the arbiter of half our actions, …it lets us control roughly the other half”. Machiavelli suggests that maintaining cunning and force in political activity is beneficial to one's survival.This is where the label “ends justify the means”, often associated with Machiavelli, originates from.
Unfortunately, the influx of political thought and individualism during the Italian Renaissance appeared to herald a collapse of the political environment. Machiavelli saw a connection between Italy’s condition and the morality of its people, saying, “We Italians are irreligious and corrupt above others.” The Christian practice of turning the other cheek and a focus on the other world created submissiveness in spirit that disgusted Machiavelli.
**“Seven elements of executive power appear in Machiavelli’s work conducive to the modern executive: capital punishment, a primacy of war and foreign affairs over peace and domestic affairs, usage of indirect government – so that the leading force appears to be a group other than the ruler, the value of secrecy, a need for decisiveness, an erosion of the differences between groups, and the responsibility of the executive to take glory and blame”**
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