Amadeus: form

Amadeus: form

Form Overview

  • “Amadeus” utilises a biographical form, with the main characters and events based on real figures and occurrences.
  • The play is written in a style that fuses the conventions of tragedy and comedy, avoiding a formal division of comic and tragic scenes, hence, incorporating the traits of a tragi-comedy.

Biographical Form

  • The play is a dramatic reimagining of real events and characters, such as the composers Salieri and Mozart.
  • The interaction of these historical figures allows the playwright to explore real themes, including jealousy, rivalry and the nature of genius.
  • The biographical form provides a mix of fact and fiction, and allows an interpretation of historical events through a modern lens, inviting audiences to re-evaluate history and its characters.

Tragic Elements

  • Salieri’s character arc follows the elements of classic tragedy: he initially attains a position of high status and success, only to be eventually destroyed by his own flaws.
  • The theme of inevitable fate is a staple of the tragic genre, emphasised here by Salieri’s inability to escape his mediocrity and Mozart’s inevitable demise.
  • Shaffer cultivates Sympathy towards Salieri (an unlikely tragic protagonist) by humanising him and highlighting his loneliness, and his struggle with his own mediocrity.

Comic Elements

  • Elements of comedy are interwoven with the script’s overall tragic storyline, maintaining the tragi-comedy balance. Particularly in Mozart’s character, who often behaves in a buffoonish manner, bringing comic relief.
  • Witty banter and wordplay, often revolving around the musical world, provide the rhythmic comedic undertones.
  • Scatological humour, presented mainly through Mozart, adds a touch of low comedy, contrasting Mozart’s refined artistic genius with his less sophisticated personal habits.

Symbolic Form

  • Shaffer uses the character of Salieri as a symbol for mediocrity grappling with the existence of unattainable brilliance (Mozart).
  • Use of music and sound as a symbolic and structural device to convey character development, emotional states and narrative progression.
  • Visual symbols like the cross Salieri burns and Mozart’s masquerade attire augment the dramatic tension and also give insight into character’s psyche.
  • Finally, within the biographical, tragic and comic form, the play also uses elements of psychodrama where, through various theatrical devices, the inner conflicts of the protagonist are explored and his psyche is laid bare.