Characters
- Count Almaviva, Governor of Andalusia
- Countess Rosine, his wife
- Figaro, the Count's valet and major-domo; engaged to Suzanne
- Suzanna, the Countess' maid; engaged to Figaro
- Marceline, the housekeeper; in love with Figaro, unknowingly Figaro's mother
- Antonio, gardener of the castle; uncle of Suzanne, father of Fanchette
- Fanchette, daughter of Antonio, girlfriend to many
- Chérubin, the Count's page, the Countess' godson; in love with every woman
- Bartholo, a doctor from Seville; unknowingly Figaro's father
- Bazile, music master to the Countess
- Don Guzman Brid'oison, a judge.
- Doublemain, clerk to Don Guzman Brid'oison
- Gripe-Soleil, a shepherd lad
- Pedrillo, the Count's huntsman
- An usher
- A shepherdess
- An alguazil
- A magistrate
- Servants, valets, peasants, and huntsmen
Beaumarchais wrote detailed notes on the characters, printed in the first published text of the play, issued in 1785. The author prescribed that Figaro must be played without any suggestion of caricature; the Count with great dignity yet with grace and affability; the Countess with restrained tenderness; Suzanne as intelligent and lively but without brazen gaiety; Chérubin as a charming young scamp, diffident only in the presence of the Countess. Chérubin is traditionally played as a trouser role by a woman. Beaumarchais said that in the original company, there were no boys available who were both the right age and who could understand all the subtleties of the role: most of the character's comic traits come from the view of an adult looking back on puberty with amusement.
The ridiculous character of Don Guzman was a jab at a corrupt judge, Louis Valentin Goëzman. Beaumarchais gained public acclaim for directly challenging the judge in a series of pamphlets collectively published as Mémoires dans l'affaire Goëzman. Beaumarchais was hailed as a hero of the people with the public embarrassment he brought upon Goëzman.
Fanchette is around twelve years old. At the time, the age of consent throughout most of Europe was around that same age; hence, the revelation that she and the adult Count are sleeping together was not meant to be quite as shocking as it is often perceived these days.
Read more about this topic: The Marriage Of Figaro (play)
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