“ITALIAN CHRONICLES”

Everywhere is full of obstacles for lovers, sometimes the families are enemies as in “Romeo and Juliet”, which takes place in Italy, too. The passion for revenge, the desire to be richer, to look more religious and get worldly advantages are always on the way of the lovers and these sometimes mislead them. The stories are also full of poison, tortures,wars of power, traps and disguise and they are mingled with love in a way. Pride is a great obstacle as well, pride that prevents our understanding love or forgiveness of ourselves or our lovers. One remembers “Tosca”, a great Italian opera by Puccini, which is about two lovers that could not be together because of the passion of power and authority of some people. An artist, Cavaradossi and a singer, Tosca are in love, but he is arrested and tortured because a runaway was helped. Tosca gives them information, the chief constable wants Tosca, she seems to accept his disgusting offer but stabs him. Contrary to the chief constable’s promise, Cavaradossi is executed and Tosca jumps off the castle. “Aida”, another Italian composer, Verdi’s work, is about the great love of two enemies, an Egyptian commander Radames and the slave Aida, Ethiopian king’s daughter. Radames was punished because he told her some war secrets, he was to be buried alive and Aida, instead of running away with his father, hid in his tomb and preferred dying with him. The heart has a language of its own, it does not know riches, lineage, authority. Lovers are tied with a wordless enchanment, which can only be felt in the world of heart.

In these stories we also notice how the world treats to women hypocritically. Things that are normal or to be boasted for men are thought to be shameful for women and they are punished severely for them. In “Duchess de Palliano”, the duke, her husband, is always in love with other women and everybody knows about that. When she accepts the love addresses of one of her husband’s men, she is found guilty and her brother kills her. He does it because he has to do it, this is the law in a way and if the brother or the husband does not do it, they are considered dishonoured people. In “Head Priestess of Castro”, Elena de Campireali falls in love with Branciforte, the son of a soldier and highwayman, but her father and brother try to kill him and her brother says that he will have to kill his sister if she has a love affair. She waits for him at her balcony, reminding us “Romeo and Juliet”. The woman was always thought as the measure of honour for the families, whatever the man did was honourable when it came to love, but the woman was always a source of problem and had to be punished unless she stayed at home meekly. They are prostitutes or witches outside home or when they try to do things unexpected from them. This punishment of women is also mentioned in an essay in “The Rose and the Dynamite” by Heinrich Boll in a different way. In one of his essays, Boll writes that it is said that Saint Dominicus had only one sin he confessed on his deathbed and it was that he mostly accepted the visit of  the women who were beautiful. He was famous for having lots of witches burnt. Witches,”women who were more beautiful, more intelligent or more independent than people could stand.” Religion and political power hand in hand, can direct people however they find it profitable for themselves and people behave as they want out of fear. When people know that nobody is going to punish them, they do whatever they want. In the stories we see that when a pope dies, people commit lots of crime because until the new pope is chosen, there is no law.