Resumo de Galileo - Bertolt Brecht

Life of Galileo

Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht was written when Brecht?s own life was in turmoil. Brecht was under exile and he wrote life of Galileo in 1938 -39.brecht in this play deals with the problem of authoritative society. Galileo becomes the central figure of the play and the authority is exerted here by the church.Brecht produced different versions of the play in America and Germany, depicting each time the society and authority which exercises its influence on an individual. In Germany at the time play was written it depicted the authority of Hitler. It?s the authority of Hitler which doesn?t allow individuality to exist and especially thinkers like Brecht himself. Brecht was a member of communist party in East Germany but he didn?t want that party should exercise authority over him though he supported party in public but later Brecht was exiled from Germany.

Brecht in this play of his uses figure of Aristotle in two senses first being that Galileo undermines the theories of Aristotle. But second sense holds more importance which is that Aristotle as playwright gave several rules on the construction of a proper play but Brecht undermines all these rules is establishing a new kind of theatre known as ?epic theatre?. Brecht?s Galileo is an intellectual but not a heroic figure; he is prone to human weaknesses. Galileo has love for knowledge, when play opens we see him defining ?new age? and challenging the old Ptolemaic system and supporting on the other hand Copernican system .we have a glimpse of person devoted to intellectuality but this illusion is broken when Galileo is shown using deceitful means to earn money that?s evident from the incident in which Galileo sells telescope to the Republic of Venice claiming it as his own discovery., just for earning 500 scurdi.the figure of a hero is completely reverted by Brecht heis shown as person prone to sensual pleasures .

The world that Brecht is showing is a real world in which authoritative society are surviving. In the play also there is survival of authority and that is in the figure of church. Brecht wrote in his introduction to the play that the play is not against the church rather it?s against the authority. Authority which church exercises on Galileo, its authority of cardinal Barberini who asks Galileo to keep his theory as hypothesis. The authority of church is also exercised on common men; to reconcile people to the roughness of the world they have invented a system that says ?human is at the centre of the earth? and divine eyes of god rests on him. In the play though in the end hope is given about the ?dawn of new age? but at the same time it shows contemporary victory of authority when Galileo recants. Galileo?s recantation serves the victory of authority but his capability of completing ?discorsi? and his teaching to Andrea in the end of the play that science and common men should go hand in hand shows the arrival of new age.

nihasha

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