It is seen when Lewis is introduced, his views on love are very similar to that of his girlfriend Lucy and best friend Nick. He does not hold much value on fidelity due to the importance of the Vietnam War in his life. Lewis expresses to the patients that “love is not so important nowadays.” It is through the play itself, “Cosi Fan Tutte: Women are like that”, a play about “test[ing]..girls fidelity”, that Lewis reevaluates his opinions and values and learns to form his own. Lewis changes to having a more traditional view on romance and is able to accept that it is important in relationships. This change in Lewis is apparent when he describes the opera as being about “important things, like love and fidelity” and when he reacts genuinely hurt to when he discovers that his girlfriend Lucy has been having sex with Nick.
This was a time when marriage was criticised due to the lack of emotional involvement and loyalty was also questioned in committed relationships. In the beginning, Lewis agrees with Nick and Lucy claiming that “love is not so important nowadays”. His statements surprised some of the patients and they were “looking at Lewis as if he was mad”. To characters like Henry, Roy and Ruth, love and fidelity are very significant in a relationship. Nowra however shows that through Lewis’ discussions with the patients and the ironies found in Cosi Fan Tutte helps Lewis to change his view on love and relationships.
Lewis, a young and naive graduate who freshly took up the job of being the director for this play of mental patients replies by suggesting, ‘Love is not so important nowadays,’ and Roy questions him if he is ‘from another planet’. Throughout spending time with the mental patients and helping them get the play together, Lewis begins unravelling the stories and views of love from the other patients. For Julie love is about being ‘foolish’ and on the ‘edge’ it is important as it lets us be ourselves and brings happiness. Nowra placed Julie and Roy in the play to persuade Lewis to change his mind and from that we can see that Cosi does not support Lewis’s original view on the importance of love. However some characters such as Doug believe in the concept of ‘free love’ and that having is ‘solitude’ is better than
However as he works with the patients, he develops a new perspective and insight into certain matters and himself. When Nick and Lucy denounce him for doing a play about love, by declaring that ‘only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity’, Lewis is able to realise that love and friendship is more important than politics. He learns about the importance of friendship, clearly evident, that he attends the moratorium, helping the patients prepare for their performance with an additional rehearsal. Lewis also finds strength later in the play, which he was devoid of to begin with . At the start, he is overwhelmed by the patients such as Cherry, Doug and Roy by their 'crazy' behaviour.
Louis norwa explores developing relationships in his play Cosi by developing the notions of love and fidelity, the line between sanity and insanity as well as learning and self discovery to help emphasise Lewis' journey of personal growth. This experience for lewis helps find a deeper understanding of himself, the patients and the world around him. 'Cosi fan tutte' is the opera within the play, written by motzart. Lewis is a first time director and uni drop out and is putting on this opera with the help of his friend nick while they deal with a cast of mental patients in an attempt to try a new therapy to help them 'come out of their shells'. The concept of love and fidelity is explored through lewis's relationship with lucy and julie.
From the beginning of Cosi Nick and Lucy seem to shape Lewis’ views politically as well as his moral beliefs surrounding “free love.” Working with the patients changes Lewis’ outlook on fidelity and pulls him away from his friend’s mentalities. As a result Nick and Lucy attempt to pressure Lewis to go to “moratorium meetings,” to do a “piece of theatre that is meaningful such as Brecht” and to choose between “the funny farm” or their “radicalisation of the nation.”This highlights how Roy is not the only manipulator in the play. When Lucy questions Lewis’ priorities and his choice to do an opera about love, “an emotional indulgence for the privileged few,” Lewis highlights how “love and fidelity are important things.” His rejection of Nick and Lucy’s beliefs, further strengthens how their manipulations of Lewis have been ultimately unsuccessful. Therefore Nowra shows the audience how even though a person may try to manipulate other characters in Cosi depending on the matter they are passionate about, it may not always
Cherry seems to become more nutty when she falls for Lewis. But that’s what the audience wants to see, the normality of people turning mad because of love. Nowra is trying to cut out the fact that these people are really insane and hid it with the fact that love is what is important in this play, for people to understand that love makes you mad whether you are or not. As Julie says ‘Love is hallucinating without the
Feel Betrayed, I guess.” (Lewis, Act II Sc (i) p 67). This shows that Lewis is still not entirely sure how important love is to him, but when Lucy comes into the theatre, and tries to take Lewis to the moratorium meeting, he firmly says he is going to rehearse with the patients. “LUCY: Working with these people has changed you. We used to talk about things. Important things.
However, the idea of women being unequal to men is quickly dispelled by Webster who appears to mock the misogynistic characters of the play and indeed, very possibly the misogyny of society as a whole at the time. This is most apparent through his evolution of Vittoria as a character and also a symbol of the downfall of sexism. This is most striking when considering Flamineo’s comment that “[perfumes, when chafed] expresseth virtue, fully, whether true, or else adulterate.” Portraying a key theme throughout the play of a true nature disguised beneath a thin veneer of sweet nothings. This facade of Vittoria’s is first revealed to the audience through her manipulation of Bracciano in her dream sequence. Whereby her constant play on the word “yew/you” (“both were
Lucy then says to Lewis that ‘these’ people, the patients, have changed him, to her dislike. It goes on to discuss the newly found differences between the two. Lucy is for the Vietnam War. Lewis is more for love and fidelity, the traditional values. It continues to find that Lucy had developed a rather fond relationship with Nick,