Commedia DelArte - Character Analysis Essay Example for Free

Commedia DelArte quotation Analysis EssayPANTALONEPantalone is of top pecking order. He is sloshed and controls the finance in the character world of commedia, accordingly his orders atomic number 18 usu whollyy obeyed by all. He is the father of Isabella.He wears dark colours of black, grey and rubicund dynamic Pantaloons, tight-fitting persistent red trousers or red breeches and stockings, a short tight-fitting cover, a loose long black cloak with plain sleeves, red-woollen skull-cap and yellow turkish slippers.He is argument and scrawny and often short in stature. He wears a mask with a long, hooked hooter with bushy eyebrows, sometimes also a moustache. Pointed beard just away as if to meet the weave coming down, thus giving a very dynamic profile.His signature maintains are a gold chain hung around his neck with a large medallion as well as a dagger and a money pouch. He also carried a ubiquitous handkerchief and apply a walking cane.His back bends giving him a hunched old mans stoop, which protected his nonecase and effectively restricted the motion of his legs. His feet are to originateher, toes apart, knees well bent and facing apart creating a commission on his crutch. His legs are also much more muscled with the possibility of sustaining extreme anterior positions of the torso or making large strides.Bullying, aggressively and mean-minded, Pantalone, a pauper who had squandered his dignity along with his cash. Hes always on the pitch and he could be termed a Beelzebub of sex. Any woman who happens to cross his path becomes at at once an object of winks, leers and nudges he parades up and down in a series of showily self-important struts, slicks, trots and fast halts.His walk is small and slow and he can besides walk at one pace whatever his feet do his legs cannot go any faster, whatever the motive or stimulus. Hesold in body, that his period, feet and hands are still active. The hands (which he cant keep to himself) fl utter continuously, gesticulating separately thought as it comes into his head. The only way he can stop this is to hold them behind his back, underneath his cloak.His phonation is similar to a high pitched squawk that continuously breaks. Its cold and prudish and demanding. Pantalone gives voice to the darker side of the male consciousness, a secret hero to the unenlightened males in the audience.He is mean to his servants, narrow-mindedly proscriptive to his children, fawning to Il Dottore, scheming with Il Capitano, lecherous with Colombina and indulgent to himself. He is too self-interested to be advised of spectators, therefore calculates no notice of them.Pantalone operates on the assumption that everything can be bought and sold, and this turns out to be true, with the exception of loyalty (and love). But he also loves money for its own sake and will therefore only part with it when there is no other option. He always wants to marry his daughter to a wealthy man and av oid giving her a dowry. When things do not go his way he readily slips into emotional extremes, particularly enraged petty tyranny. He has a long memory and never forgets or forgives the slightest past transgression. Pantalone is action, not words.IL CAPITANOIlCapitano is a loner. He is never indigenous to the town where the scenario is set and is equal to pretend to high status as a result. His downfall to the level of actual social stand up is an essential part of the denouement. Being a Capitan he wore a feathered helmet or hat, huge boots and overstated garters. His clothes were sometimes diagonally striped or slashed, just now whatever the style, close scrutiny reveals the honor Magnificent in words, and his purse is always empty and under his beautifully richly damascened cuirass he wears but a frayed and tattered leather jerkin. Il Capitano himself, however, always claims that histattered undergarments are caused by the amazing virility of his body hair bursting throug h whenever he gets angry.Il Capitano appears large, whether physically or egotistically, he is a large presence on stage. He trys to attract attention from women and intimidate men. He wears a mask with a great menacing nose andfierce, bristling moustaches, which seemed like veritable iron spikes defending the influence to a citadel only too ready to capitulate. The mask, in its general aspect, was intended to emphasize the melodic line between a brave appearance and a craven nature.His signature prop is a long sword that he never actually uses for fighting. His feet are planted apart in order to exact maximum space, his chest is pushed forward and his back is always straight and tall standing with his hips wide. His walk is a long stride where the heels of his boots come down first, then the foot rolls onto the ball, then he steps again off the ball of his foot giving him rise and bounce in his step so his head can be among the clouds. However, his actual steps are small (he is in no hurry to get to war, but wants to do so with maximum effect).When he hears a frightening noise he drops everything, but only succeeds in running on the spot, head thrown back, arms in the air, kicking his feet forward and howling piteously. When he hears a wolf (or small dog) he shrinks little by little until he has made himself unnoticeable as possible, then scurries away in a crouch. When fleeing from a mouse he adopts a kind of leaping promenade walk in order to prevent it running up his legs. When scared witless he occasionally runs to be seen, to show off his legs.He often stands at attention or with his hand on his sword, nose in the air and his chest puffed out. When hes not pretending to be brave he is cowering with fear. His movements are slow, deliberate and mechanical with his gestures being extravagant and sustained.His reference is loud and proud turning to a squeak when frightened. He was originally employed by Pantalone to do his dirty work for him. They worke dwell together as lechers with financial aspirations IlCapitano to get rich, Pantalone to remain so. Pantalone would often overcharge Il Capitano on his efforts, and then betray him to others. He is almost used as a prop by all the other characters. The whole world is an audience. He stops whenever he sees the actual audience and makes a salutation so that he can be admired.Initially his magnificence may take in the other characters, but never the audience something in his very first entrance (a trip for example) should give him away.IL DOTTOREIl Dottore is the head of another family and is often the father of a lover, usually Lelio. He is the equivalent of Pantalone who thinks he has brains. He wears a black academic dress satirising Bolognese scholars, a long jacket with black coat over-reaching to his heels, black shoes, stockings and breeches, and black skull-cap.His appearance is grand his huge size comes luffly from carnival and contrasts with Pantalone. His mask covers the nose and forehead and sometimes the cheeks, which are red as he is apparently sore of the bottle.His signature props include a book and a white handkerchief. He would stand with his weightiness back on his heels, belly forward and his hands gesturing in front. He walks peripatetically in figures of eight, using tiny, mince steps. His walking posture descends while he thinks (out loud, of course) and rises up again on the solution of the problem.When posing, he leans forward with a hand on his face, usually tapping his forehead or stroking his beard in a pensive manner. When posing behind another performer, he sometimes does something malicious such as preparing to clap them out with a mallet.His movements are relatively static in front of the audience. He needs allthe space to himself and gains it by gesturing out from the body as if sowing a seed.He parps like a trombone when disquisition and pronounces S as Sh. He is a neighbour and friend or rival of Pantalone (either way, the two are inseparable), and since he is a natural parasite, sees the advantage of being patronized by him. To acknowledge or lecture to the audience he needs a context in order to make a direct address the giving of a lecture for example.He gives the other characters a break from physical endeavor by his prolixity sometimes to the point where he has to be carried off by them, still talking. For this intellect he stays a relatively long time onstage. A survivor, not a objective figure like Pantalone.He is essentially belly, not intellect and is extremely vocal. IlDottore is inclined, like Pantalone, to be stingy, but in his case it is because he doesnt have any money.The doctor is an eternal gasbag he cannot percipient his mouth without spitting out a Latin phrase or quotation. He believes someone suffers from an ailment, which they apparently do not, and offers to cure them. He spontaneously diagnoses performers on stage, tries to enlist assistance to help him perform expe rimental surgeries on himself and others, as well as performs random experiments in the name of science and medicine.