Play Card 1: The Servant of Two Masters
The Servant of Two Masters is a comedy written by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni in the sixteenth century. The story falls into the genre of comedy because it uses traditional characters from Commedia Dell'arte and is a story about a sly servant creating a humorous mix up between his two masters.
Plot: The play begins at the house of Pantalone. Pantalone’s daughter, Clarice, is signing a marriage contract with Silvio. Truffaldino arrives at the house and claims that he is the servant of Federigo Rasponi. The news is shocking to the other characters as Federigo was believed to be dead after losing a duel. Suddenly, Beatrice Rasponi arrives disguised as her brother Federigo because she wants Pantalone to pay dues that were meant for Federigo. The wedding between Silvio and Clarice is cancelled, as Clairce was originally promised to Federigo. Scene two takes place in a street outside Brighella’s inn. Truffaldino meets Florindo who just escaped from Turin, and becomes Florindo’s new servant. Florindo asks Truffaldino to go to the post office to check for any letters, but he runs into Beatrice on the way who also asks to check for letters. When Truffaldino returns, he mixes up the letters between Florindo and Beatrice. Florindo reads the letter meant for Beatrice and wants to find her
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The story reflects on the higher and lower status between masters and their servants and while it is a comedy, some events that occurred throughout the story reflected the poor treatment of servants. Furthermore, the story reflects on the impact of arranged marriages when two true lovers are forced to separate. Finally, Truffaldino’s small tricks and lies that ended up turning into a chaos of upset characters would have impacted the audience because it reflects on what can happen when a single lie can grow into a monstrous