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The Mistress of the Inn

Author: Carlo Goldoni

To be able to completely understand Goldoni's work we have to understand his beginning point and that is comedy dell’arte. Goldoni will make this type of comedy perfect in his works.

This comedy reached its success in the 17th century when it was spread all over Europe but in the 18th century the comedy loses its touch and becomes material for entertaining the uneducated audience. The more serious and educated people were one step ahead and were waiting for a new theater type.

This is a specific type where professional actors act. It was never performed by a strictly written script and the actors had more freedom to improvise. They had space to think of their mimic, gests, dance, song, etc.

Goldoni's comedy was based on him wanting to bring the written script back to the comedy dell’art because he believed it would make it more convincing.

Genre: comedy

Place: Florence, Mirandolin's bar

Book Summary

In Mirandolin's bar, everything was revolving around three guests, and those are a rich count, a knight and a misogynist Ripafratt and a marquis who got very poor. The count and marquis are fighting for the attention of Mirandolina, but the marquis always loses because he was out of money.

The misogynistic knight Ripfratt looked at that vain competition with a pinch of despise. He was rough towards Mirandolina, and she put up with his behavior. Mirandolina lost her temper and decided to get her revenge by making him fall in love with her.

She faked modesty and honesty towards the knight, and that worked well towards her. The knight's attitude fades away as well as his caution towards women.

Mirandolina goes to his room and tries to win him over with her tactics.  She placed nice sheets on his bed, made him his favorite gravy. He felt flattered and got more relaxed around her.

The knight didn’t know what was happening to him so he decided to go away for some time. Mirandolina faked, with some tears, that she was sad because of his departure and she broke his heart like that.

In the last act, Mirandolina is entirely convinced that the knight was in love with her, so she decided to get her revenge. She rejected and despised the knight's gift which was a golden bottle, and that was her way of telling him that she doesn’t care about the material things and that she wants him to admit that women are superior.

The knight went to her place to ask her to accept his gift, but he found her with Fabrizio. The knight was desperate and humiliated because of his weakness. He confronts the count and Mirandolina act like she doesn’t know what is going on.

When she realized that she went too far, Mirandolina said that her father's last wish was for her to marry Fabrizio. She planned to be protected like that and keep her freedom.

The waitress Mirandolina is a work of art in which we have a simple plot, comedy, fast changing of the scenes and convincing characters.

Characters Analysis

Mirandolin - beautiful and wise woman, extremely self-conscious. She has very realistic and clear outlook on life. She feels we should take advantage of the opportunities that are offered but should respect human values. She knows how to make men fall in love with her. She doesn't like acting and pretense, and this is the reason she laughs at all her suitors. She thinks they are all in love with her because of their ego, and that they were materialists. In the end, she founds happiness with an honest, humble and good man Fabrizio.

Carlo Goldoni Biography

Carlo Goldoni was born in Venice in 1707. He was an Italian comediographer who wrote a series of melodramas, tragic comedies and 200 comedies. He was also librettist, and playwright.

Father of Carlo place him under care of Caldini, the famous philosopher who lived in Rimini. Regardless of that decision, Carlo ran away in company of strolling players and returned to his home town, Venice.

He was schooled in Perugia, on a Dominican university in Rimini and he graduated from The University of Padova.

Even he was educated as a lawyer that did not stop him to start a different career as a famous writer from Italy. Carlo entered in theatre with the Amalasunta. That was one of his famous tragedy.

Some of his work includes the most popular plays that are enjoyed by many of the readers regardless their age and occupation.

His famous works of art are "The Mistress of the Inn", "The Revenge of the Women", "The Lovers"… He died February 6th 1793.

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