I found that the opera version of The Barber of Seville in large part stayed true to Beaumarchais’ play.

The versions mainly differ in their approach to love and comedy. The play placed heavy emphasis on comedy. Rosine and The Count deeply loved each other and there were romantic elements but, the entire story seemed humorous thus portraying a sort of ‘comic love.’ The love story and The Count’s courtship of Rosine provided a background for the humorous tale. However, the story is romanticized by the opera. There weren’t as many truly funny moments and the love between The Count and Rosina was brought into focus. This romantic comedy version treated humor as an element of what was primarily a love story.

On a smaller scale, I found Figaro to be different from the play version. His entrance is loud, enthusiastic and slightly boastful. The Figaro that we see in the play is somewhat subdued, an easy going charmer who admits that being a barber was not his first choice. At the same time, he also does enjoy his work. Another important difference between the two versions of the characters is that the Figaro in the play doesn’t seem to someone who passes love notes and unites lovers on a daily basis. He is very well informed and has access to the houses of the rich and the powerful but it is not suggested that he actively uses his influence all the time. He is simply helping out his former master in this particular case. But the Figaro in the opera tells the audience that part of his job as barber to the nobility is to pass messages between lovers and act as the town gossip.

In tragedy, fate is portrayed as an oppressive mistress, one who inexorably leads the characters to certain death and unhappiness regardless of free will and good intention. Fate, even in general terms is perceived by people as a set of prophecies or commandments of the universe that inevitably fulfill themselves often to the detriment of a person’s free will and desires. However, comedy presents a different, lighter view of fate as a kind mistress, one who does not force a given outcome on the characters. Rather, fate causes certain key events to happen by way of chance and serendipity and then the characters are allowed to devise plans and make decisions that decide exactly how the story ends.

The opening scene of The Barber of Seville emphasizes the role of fate, or more accurately, chance and good fortune. The character of Figaro is most influenced by fate. He describes how his hopes of being a writer in Madrid were crushed and his life has led him to Seville, where he now works as a barber. While this may appear to be bad luck or tragic fate, Figaro is not disheartened or broken up like a tragic character. Instead, he earns his living as a barber and continues to compose, which is what he is doing when the audience first sees him. In a stroke of pure luck, the Count and Figaro recognize each other. That The Count was Figaro’s former master, that Figaro was a barber with access to Bartolo’s house, that The Count should find himself in a position where he needs help from Figaro and most importantly, that they both should be at the same place at the same time all add up to serendipitous good fortune for the Count as he relies on Figaro’s help to court and eventually marry Rosine, a young noblewoman kept captive by her guardian, Bartholo.

However, as the story progresses, the characters exercise their free will and make plans to ensure a favorable outcome for themselves as opposed to characters in a tragedy who simply accept destiny. It is never completely certain that The Count and Figaro will be able to outwit Bartholo. In fact, Bartholo is a powerful man in the story, particularly advantaged because of his position as Rosine’s guardian, and the outcome may very well have turned out in his favor. However, the Count and Figaro make their plans without any fear of fate and eventually they achieve their goal. It is arguable that The Count and Rosine were destined to be married. However, the action in The Barber of Seville is spontaneous and not dictated by fate. The turn of events is, in certain places, assisted by fate but ultimately there is hope and freedom of will that contribute to the lightness of comedy.

From Shakespeare’s Hamlet to ancient Greek myths, fate is an inherent, and even necessary, element in tragedy. Fate is recognized to be omnipresent and omnipotent in tragedy. The free will of the characters, whether exercised or not, is overpowered by their preordained fates. Hence, a tragedy occurs when despite a character’s brave efforts and noble intentions, he/she faces death simply because they are destined to die.

This is what happens to the protagonist Antigone in Sephocles’ play Antigone. The daughter of the ill-fated Oedipus and the sister of Polyneices and Eteocles, who also died tragic deaths, Antigone is a character that rouses the audience’s sympathy. When her uncle, King Creon issues a royal edict banning anyone from giving the disgraced Polyneices a proper burial, Antigone makes the choice that dooms her life. She is forced to defy the King’s orders because of her principles and firm conviction in the laws of Heaven which dictated that the dead must be given proper funeral rites if they are to enter the world below successfully. This choice may have been of Antigone’s own will but as later events prove, she was destined to meet a tragic end and the noble principles that led her to make this choice will not save her from her fate. Even as she explains her decision to her sister Ismene, Antigone acknowledges her impending death in a fatalistic manner as she has already accepted the power of fate.

When the blind prophet, Teiresias, warns Creon that condemning Antigone to death would seal his own fate, the King agrees to free Antigone and allow Polyneices’ burial. In another example of how fate is generally accepted by the characters as inescapable, King Creon is fearful that the prophet will prove right and that his own fate would be to die if he does not pardon Antigone. However, fate strikes again as Antigone is discovered to have taken her own life in prison.

Thus, Antigone, whose downfall makes the story a tragedy, meets her tragic end regardless of her noble character and brave choices. The dismal ending to the story is preordained and inescapable. The sense of inevitability that overshadows all the action makes the story all the more tragic. The play concludes with a final acknowledgement of the power of fate which comes from King Creon himself as he laments, “ Everything I touch goes wrong, and on my head/ fate climbs up with its overwhelming load” (1489-90)

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Gogol Ganguli is a conflicted young man, torn between the values of his Indian parents and his own desires to be American. In his confusion, he foolishly cuts himself off from his family and culture to lead an All-American life. Then, Gogol’s father dies a sudden death. Shocked and overcome with grief, he intensely regrets not having appreciated his father more. Gogol recalls a particularly moving memory of his father from a family trip they made a long time ago. His father had said, “How long do I have to remember it?”…”Try to remember it always,” he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. “Remember that you and I made this journey, that went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go” (187*) This memory reflects shared memories between father and son, a bond that even transcends the father’s death. As he looks back on this and other memories, Gogol finally reaches a level of acceptance about his father’s death. The book concludes with a significant scene where Gogol picks up a book by his namesake, the Russian author, Nikolai Gogol, a book given to him by his father. He will remember his father by honoring the values he passed on to his son and family and in doing so attempt to atone for past mistakes.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell is a precocious nine-year-old who has lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. The incident has affected him deeply, his pain intensified by regret. Oskar’s regrets his inability on that fateful day to pick up the phone when his father called just moments before he died. It is clear that he idolizes his father, “I loved having a Dad who was smarter than the New York Times, and I loved how my cheek could feel the hairs on his chest through his T-shirt, and how he always smelled like shaving, even at the end of the day. Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn’t have to invent a thing” (12) Now, after his death, Oskar wishes everyone else to idolize his father too – he is worried when his mom meets a new man Ron and appears to have gotten over his father’s death, outraged when Mr. Black did not have a card for Thomas Schell in his biological directory, desperate when he pleads with William Black to recollect every single detail about his father on the day that he bought the blue vase. But, unlike Gogol’s private remembrance and realization in The Namesake, Oskar’s remembrance of his father takes on a larger significance when he goes on a hunt for the mysterious lock. Various other characters in the novel such as Abby Black, who regrets her broken marriage, Mr. Black who regrets not having stayed home and appreciated his wife more while she lived, Grandpa Schell who regrets a life not lived and Oskar’s grandmother who regrets not having the courage to ask for respect and love from her husband confess their regrets, each of them having their own fond and bitter memories to hold on to. In the end, Oskar has yet to fully come to terms with his father’s death. However, he seems to have gained a degree of acceptance and maturity, bolstered by the numerous memories he has of his father.

In Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, the protagonists go through the painful process of losing their fathers and then rediscovering themselves through remembrance. Both Gogol and Oskar appreciate life more as result of their memories of their fathers, especially since both boys lost their fathers abruptly and with quite a lot left to be said. In both novels, remembrance is synonymous with regret, anger, and disappointment and leads the characters on a journey that changes them forever.

*The page number is according to the First Mariner Books edition of the novel published in 2004