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Duke's Character In Rigoletto Essay

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A huge shift has taken place from Act I to Act II as we see the tone develop through following the development of the Duke’s character in Rigoletto. However, the contradictions and differences revealed between these arias do not negate the similarities in each aria. Each aria serves a purpose and has revealed unforeseen depths of feeling. These Acts work together to convey the Duke as a complex character. Even with the Duke’s drastic change in character in Act II, we still see resemblance of the Duke as the same person from Act I throughout Rigoletto. Compare Act I, where the Duke declares that “this woman or that is the same as the many others [he] see around [him]” (I.1) with Act II where the Duke exclaims, “She was stolen from me”(II, 89). …show more content…

She is a brief physical attraction but then she is useless. In Act II, the passage reveals the Duke’s manner as more caring and protective. He sees Gilda as a prized object to keep and possess. The fact that she was stolen from him indicates a tone of possessiveness. While the Duke seems to understand Gilda better by seeing her individual characteristics, in both situations he still objectifies women. These arias also relate because in both, the Duke is not aware of his lies and contradictions. In the first arias, the Duke very confidently expresses how he feels about women, declaring, “If today this woman pleases me, perhaps tomorrow it will be another. Fidelity…we detest like a cruel disease” (I.1). The Duke’s language is direct and confident without any doubt giving off a composed and collected spirit. He believes in what he says because his actions after his speech coincide with his words as he moves from woman to woman. In the Act II, the Duke enters in the back when he begins his soliloquy saying, “She, so pure, by whose innocent gaze [he] believe[s] [him]self almost impelled toward

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