Julie Cosi
Julie is the most tragic character in Cosi. To what extent do you agree?
Julie is not
How are they tragic?
Louis Nowra has used black comedy within Cosi to allow the audience to abandon their pre-conceptions of ‘mad’ people and to see the characters not for their illness but for their personality. Because of this the audience is able to relate to each character and their situation and realise the underlying sadness of the patients’ lives. Each character brings their own experiences and personalities into the play which creates the audience to perceive characters differently. One of the most obvious perceptions of some characters in the play is the sympathy and pity they invoke through their characters development. The character Roy, who suffers from manic depression, creates sympathy from the audience due to his tragic childhood and consent rejection from society and even the ‘insane’. Julie is also another character who’s also perceived as tragic. Julie is a patient in the asylum due to drug dependency which ultimately causes her death after the play has finished.
The truth of Roy’s life is one of the most shocking revelations to the audience as he often puts on a outgoing happy façade. With his vibrently outgoing personality Roy becomes one of the central figures of the play. He influences Lewis into directing the
Italian opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ and captivates Lewis with tales of music and performance from his childhood. This illusion that Roy casts over Lewis, and the audience alike, is seen for what it truely is as we learn that the stories were all lies and what Roy never new his mother. ‘I had a dream, Jerry.’ This quote from Roy reveals Roy’s sadness as audience has an epiphany that Roy’s tales of music and performance, along with his desire to performer ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’, are his way of trying to escape the sadness of his life spent unloved within orphanages and the asylum.
We witness similar sadness in the life of one of the other patients, Ruth. The
Julie is not
How are they tragic?
Louis Nowra has used black comedy within Cosi to allow the audience to abandon their pre-conceptions of ‘mad’ people and to see the characters not for their illness but for their personality. Because of this the audience is able to relate to each character and their situation and realise the underlying sadness of the patients’ lives. Each character brings their own experiences and personalities into the play which creates the audience to perceive characters differently. One of the most obvious perceptions of some characters in the play is the sympathy and pity they invoke through their characters development. The character Roy, who suffers from manic depression, creates sympathy from the audience due to his tragic childhood and consent rejection from society and even the ‘insane’. Julie is also another character who’s also perceived as tragic. Julie is a patient in the asylum due to drug dependency which ultimately causes her death after the play has finished.
The truth of Roy’s life is one of the most shocking revelations to the audience as he often puts on a outgoing happy façade. With his vibrently outgoing personality Roy becomes one of the central figures of the play. He influences Lewis into directing the
Italian opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ and captivates Lewis with tales of music and performance from his childhood. This illusion that Roy casts over Lewis, and the audience alike, is seen for what it truely is as we learn that the stories were all lies and what Roy never new his mother. ‘I had a dream, Jerry.’ This quote from Roy reveals Roy’s sadness as audience has an epiphany that Roy’s tales of music and performance, along with his desire to performer ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’, are his way of trying to escape the sadness of his life spent unloved within orphanages and the asylum.
We witness similar sadness in the life of one of the other patients, Ruth. The