preview

What Is The Literary Devices In Scene De La Vie De Boheme

Decent Essays

One of the two female protagonists of La boheme (1896) is Mimi’, a young seamstress and neighbor of Rodolfo, a poor poet, whom he meets one day seeking a light for her candle. The libretto, for which Puccini and his two librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, drew inspiration from Henri Murger’s novel Scenes de la vie de boheme, tells the story of the love of two couples – Mimi’ and Rodolfo, and Musetta and Marcello – living in poverty in the artistic Latin Quarter in 19th-century Paris. The plot follows the ups and downs of their relationships as their part and reunite, until, in the final act, Mimi’ death puts a tragic end to her and Rodolfo’s love.
From the moment she enters the stage in the second act, her shyness and vulnerability …show more content…

As she sings in her aria, she lives ‘sola, soletta’ in her ‘bianca cameretta’ (with the adjective ‘white’ enhancing the innocent aspect of the character); later on in the third act, when the lovers decide to separate, she reminds Rodolfo of her ‘cerchietto d’or’ and ‘cuffietta rosa’, which she had left behind – both nouns ending in a characteristic Italian diminutive suffix. Mimi’ herself is little: her hand is but a fragile ‘manina’, while her overall smallness makes Rodolfo refer to her as ‘bambina’; finally, rather than calling her by her real name, Lucia, everyone knows her by her nickname, Mimi’, which suggests she is perceived as a child, rather than an …show more content…

During her relationship with Rodolfo, Mimi’ demonstrates her flirtatious side, as it is implied that she notices other men: as they are walking towards the café in act two, Mimi’ is said to be watching a group of students, and when Rodolfo asks ‘Chi guardi?’, she answers, coquettishly, ‘Sei geloso?’. This is further confirmed in act three, where Mimi’ confesses to Marcello that Rodolfo’s jealousy makes him suspicious of ‘un passo, un detto,/ un vezzo, un fior’, whereas later on, Rodolfo hilself tells Marcello, ‘con amarezza ironica’, that Mimi’ ‘e’ una civetta/ che frascheggia con tutti’, and that she encourages Vicount’s advances. Mimi’ also momentarily reveals her vanity and a more materialistic side, incongruous with the ideal of a modest maiden, when at the beginning of her relationship with Rodolfo she wants him to buy her a new bonnet. ‘Andiam per la cuffietta?, asks the girl, and when Rodolfo buys it for her she is eager for compliments (‘Mi sta bene questa cuffietta rosa?’). But the new bonnet satisfies her appetite only for a moment: ‘Bel vezzo di corallo!’, she cries watching the window of a shop, trying to induce Rodolfo to purchase the necklace for her as

Get Access