Stories about people who sell their souls to the devil in order for their greatest desires to be obtained are often told, but what about stories regarding individuals who attempt to make a bargain with God? Peter Shaffer successfully brings a story about one’s relationship with God, madness, acceptance, and envy to life in one of his critically acclaimed works called Amadeus.
The written play of Amadeus tells the story of how the envy of Antonio Salieri, an Italian composer, towards fellow composer Mozart gets the best of him and drives Salieri to madness. It also portrays one man’s internal struggle with mediocrity. When compared to the written works, the film adaptation of Amadeus is more focused on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, himself, rather than Salieri. In the written works of Amadeus, the story starts out in Salieri’s apartment where he “confesses” to poisoning Mozart 32 years after the death of Mozart, whereas the film adaptation begins in a mental hospital after Salieri was taken there because he slit his own throat. Both the written works and the film adaptation of Amadeus switch between the past and present, which gives the viewer/reader a glimpse into what events in Salieri’s life lead up to him attempting suicide and claiming that he “poisoned” Mozart.
As a young boy, Antonio Salieri made a plea to God asking if he would grant him the musicality to become a famous composer who’s legacy and works will forever live on. In return for this, Salieri offered his chastity, his industry, his deepest humility, and every hour of his life to God. To Salieri it seemed that God had accepted his offer because at the age of 16, an old family friend appeared from out of the blue and offered for Salieri to come to Vienna to study music. After many years, he became an imperial court composer and music director established in Vienna whose operas gained fame all throughout Europe in the late 18th century. Salieri seemed to have it all until another composer by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived in Vienna. At first Salieri didn’t know what to think of the young man, until he heard his music. Was this piece only a one-time phenomenon? Was it just a happy accident? Surely Salieri must have heard it wrong. After reflecting on Mozart’s score Salieri realizes that it wasn’t music he was hearing, it was “the voice of God”. This upset Salieri because he soon became aware of the fact that God had “cheated” him. To Salieri, instead of being “one of the greats”, God gave him the abilities to differentiate the mediocrities from the greats and Mozart possessed a level of musicality that Salieri could never reach. This was portrayed very similarly in both the written play and movie adaptation.
Over time Salieri’s envy towards Mozart begins to consume him, but instead of making it a battle between Mozart and himself, it becomes a battle between Salieri and God. Salieri starts breaking all the promises he made to God and soon decides to get revenge on God by going through God’s “instrument”. So, Salieri proceeds to start to starve Mozart out in a sense where he would make sure that Mozart would never be able to be appointed to any high musical office or earn enough money to actually survive. The whole ongoing battle between God and Salieri is so important for many reasons, but in my opinion, the most interesting is that the title of the play and film is called Amadeus, which translates to love of God and since it seems like God is using Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as his instrument, then God must have a special love for Mozart and not Salieri. On another note, as previously mentioned, the movie adaptation of Amadeus is more focused on Mozart, thus it gives a better visual of how Salieri’s actions affected Mozart. For example, you can see Mozart looking more and more sick throughout the movie. It also allows the viewer to form a connection with Mozart, which makes every one of Salieri’s actions performed out of envy even more vile. On the contrary, the written play of Amadeus focuses more on Salieri and his inner demons and humanizes him more, which enables us to almost sympathize with Salieri.
After Mozart’s father dies, you can see in both the film adaptation and written play how much it affects him, but the movie shows more of a digression with Mozart after his father’s death because Mozart was so dependent on him. Salieri thought that for Mozart there was no coming back from such a tragedy, but instead of completely shutting down after his father’s death, Mozart transforms all his pain into music, which results in one of Mozart’s most arguably iconic operas being composed, Don Giovanni. This only adds more fuel to Salieri’s burning desire to destroy God and Mozart. He couldn’t grasp how Mozart was able to turn such pain and sorrow into such a dark and remarkable opera. Salieri is left in wonderment saying:
“I looked on astounded as from his ordinary life he made his art. We were both ordinary men, he and I. Yet he from the ordinary created legends – and I from legends created only the ordinary.”
At this point in both the written play and the film, Salieri decided to change his approach to the destruction of God through Mozart and befriends Mozart. As Mozart’s health continues to spiral downhill because of his father’s death, his wife takes their child and leaves him for reasons such as his extreme poverty. As Mozart has now hit an all time low in both his physical state and professional life, he turns to his newfound friend Salieri and tells him how a dark figure asked him to write a Requiem Mass. In the film, the viewer observes that Mozart’s health keeps declining. Seemingly out of guilt, Salieri offers to help him finish the Requiem Mass. As each hour goes by, Mozart continues to get weaker and weaker. In the written play, Salieri sees that Mozart is writing the Requiem Mass and Mozart then is convinced that he is writing it for his own death. Mozart declaring he has been poisoned follows this realization. Out of remorse, Salieri admits how not only did he “poison” Mozart they poisoned each other. Salieri’s attempts to destroy Mozart and get his revenge on God drove Mozart to madness, while Mozart’s “God given” musicality drove Salieri to madness. Salieri then says,
“Reduce the man – reduce the God. Behold my vow fulfilled. The profoundest voice in the world reduced to a nursery tune. And so finally I left. Refused. Unheard! And never –never after—could I confess to anyone.”
After Mozart’s wife returns home in both the written play and film adaptation, she is able to witness her husband’s last breaths of life. Whether the cause of death was kidney failure, as suggested by the death certificate, or poison, Mozart dies. In the written play, Salieri soon comes to terms with God’s punishment. Although he did receive fame and was even more famous than Mozart during the time they were both alive, he must “endure 32 years of being called “distinguished” by people incapable of distinguishing”. On a side note, another one of Salieri’s motives for claiming to have poisoned Mozart 32 years after everything happened is because if he was unable to gain an everlasting fame through his music, then he could gain fame and be remembered as the man who killed one of the “greatest” composers to have ever lived. The film adaptation ends with Salieri saying, “Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you. I absolve you. I absolve you all.” And the written works ends with Salieri saying, “Mediocrities everywhere- now and to come- I absolve you all. Amen”. No matter which way it is phrased, the meaning of what Salieri tries to say remains the same and that is that it is okay for people to accept their limitations and to be content when greatness is out of reach.
In addition to all the similarities and differences of the written play and movie adaptation, one similarity that I do not agree with is how Mozart is depict as a “genius”. There are no such things as geniuses. It is all based off of one’s environment, the opportunity one receives, perseverance, and chance. Throughout Amadeus Salieri compares himself to Mozart and their pieces they composed, but one thing that I do not believe was taken into account by Salieri was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This means that although someone could hate his music and love Mozart’s music, another person may come along and think Mozart’s music is the worst and that Salieri’s is the best. Music is a form of art and art is subjective. Also, Mozart was better traveled than Salieri and had a dad who was a music teacher and pushed Mozart to be the best he could be. On the other hand Salieri was not able to pursue music until his teenage years, thus supporting my theory that one’s talent is more because of nurture, not nature. In the end, Peter Shaffer’s work Amadeus, explores both how envy can impact someone and their power, and it also lets people know that it’s okay to accept their limitations (but that doesn’t mean that they should stop trying).