Dec 30, 2009

The Barber of Seville | Introduction

The Barber of Seville was Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s first comic work and first successful play. Beaumarchais drew on age-old themes and comic types to create a work that dazzled the audience with its humorous wordplay, irreverent activity, and lively characterization. The use of archetypal characters allowed viewers to readily relate to Figaro and company. However, Beaumarchais imbues his characters with traits of particular importance to his original pre-Revolutionary audience. Thus does The Barber of Seville successfully take on weightier issues than do most comedies.

Figaro easily emerges as the star of The Barber of Seville. So popular was he that Beaumarchais brought Figaro back a few years later in The Marriage of Figaro. In addition, the radical cry that Beaumarchais raises, the condemnation of the prevailing social system, is most apparent through Figaro. As Geoffrey Brereton points out in French Comic Drama from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, ‘‘Figaro’s self-confidence, rooted in the conviction that inherently he is as good as any other man, is the basis of the social criticism already apparent, though muted, in this play.’’ Figaro also is a successful character because of his joyful yet irrepressible behavior. He survives in contemporary times as the epitome of the roguish figure, endowed with cleverness, wit, and restrained insolence.

The Barber of Seville Summary

Act I
Beaumarchais explains the plot of The Barber of Seville in his foreword: ‘‘An amorous old man intends to marry his ward on the following day; a young man who is more clever forestalls him, and on that very day, captures the girl in the guardian’s house, right under his nose, and makes her his wife.’’ The play opens on a street in Seville, where Count Almaviva waits under a window for Rosine to appear. After seeing and falling in love with Rosine in Madrid, he has tracked her down and now is determined to make contact with her. While he is waiting, Figaro, his former servant, appears. The Count explains his predicament, and Figaro promises to help him.

Soon, Rosine and her guardian, Bartholo, appear at the window. He is angry with her for reading a modern play that he finds foolish. Dropping a note into the street, she asks the Count to identify himself. Bartholo sees that she drops a piece of paper, but she claims it is only song lyrics. Bartholo, however, suspects trouble and resolves to marry Rosine as soon as possible. He sends his servant Bazile to a notary to make arrangements for the wedding to take place the following day.

Meanwhile, Figaro urges the Count to identify himself to Rosine in song. The Count claims to be an undistinguished young man named Lindor. After Rosine is forced to retire into the house, Figaro and the Count plot. Figaro comes up with the idea of getting the Count into the house disguised as a soldier who has billeting orders.

Act II
To make his plot work, Figaro incapacitates the household staff with medications. Then... » Complete The Barber of Seville Summary