Life of Galileo

Hamza karim
2-A
1815111
As the scene begins, audience is very satisfied as Galileo’s theory was finally approved in the

last scene after facing a lot of opposition but at the very same moment Galileo’s invitation in

the ball by cardinals puzzled the audience as it made the audience to think that the cardinals

might welcome Galileo’s teachings now or the church will still stay with their decision to stand

as a wall between Galileo’s theory as the fatherly figure of the church called Galileo enemy of

the human race.

The scene is further carried on by a bit of a romantic moment between Virginia and her fiancé

ludavico which gives audience a positivity that everything till now is normal and moving

smoothly and further, there might be more positivity in the scene. Here the approach to show

Galileo’s selfish nature was very obvious to the audience as Galileo asked his daughter that she

must look beautiful and people should be attracted towards her so that she can get popular

that she’s Galileo’s daughter, this also audience a contrast in Galileo’s nature that he is modern

and progressive man but somewhere inside he still follows the traditional norms of the society

as according to the previous scenes he said that his theory is just because of reason and

thinking but now he wants to make sure his daughter is looking attractive so that his theories

are welcomed by people in the ball.

Furthermore the audience witnessed the cunning nature of Galileo when he tried to play with

the secretaries minds when they were playing chess as he tried to use the terms of chess to

convey the message of his theory by saying that let the chief pieces roam across the whole
board just like in his theory he said earth which is considered center of the universe revolves

around the sun. this shapes up the character of Galileo in front of audience now they are very

familiar about Galileo’s nature that he’s a very smart man who knows how to play with minds.

But the response of one of the secretory that “ it wouldn’t go with our small salaries” this brings

a thought In the minds of audience that they are not powerful enough going against the church

hence no one cant go against the church.

Further with the entry of cardinals increases the curiosity among the audience as now

according to the audience it’s a decisive moment as either Galileo’s theory would be praised

cardinals may bring a shift in plot by asking him to get over with his research. The audience had

an puzzle moment again when the cardinals questioned Galileo about his theories what do he

believe? which obviously differ from the bible. In the current situation there was an indication

for the audience the we started to believe that cardinals didn’t liked the approval of Galileo’s

theory because when both the cardinals were having a conversation Bellarmins dialogue that

new start charts based on a hypothesis based on little evidence which is still on verge of

investigation can be used by the mariners to help them in navigation but when the theory will

counter what’s said in the Holy Bible it will get rejected.

The counter argument between the cardinals and Galileo further verifies our assumption that

Galileo is a smart man as he knows how to counter, the counter argument also shows the well-

spoken nature of Galileo to the us, as he knows what to say in the current scenario which is

proved in the plot when cardinals says sensible man hides their knowledge but Galileo
countered by using terms of oxen that a dairy farm is of no use when there is no ox here the

thing audience tried to interpret was the brain is useless if people don’t think. in the in current

situation it was also obvious for the audience that the cardinals are indirectly trying to ask

Galileo to get over with his theory and move on.

The indirect conversation with Galileo was gradually coming on point in front of audience when

the cardinals used the term of hot coals which was a indication to Galileo that he’s going

against the church and on the road which he has selected there are disasters waiting for him. In

the current moment audience is very clear that Galileo is not invited to be congratulated his

theories will not be welcomed he’s invited so that he can be asked to restrict his thinking and

move on. However at the moment the audience witnessed the clever nature of the cardinals its

clear for the audience its not only Galileo who can play with minds to prove his stance just like

he did with secretaries when they were playing chess at the moment cardinals are trying to

exactly the same which Galileo was trying to prove them right indirectly.

With the continuation of the scene the dialogue of cardinal barberini that men’s reason are not

up to the job , it was very evident for the audience about the power culture of the church, the

church wants to remain the center of power they don’t want any men’s thinking any men’s

reasons to challenge their authority.. Men’s reasons their thinking are baseless in eyes of

church, they don’t want people to think they want people to believe in what the church and the

heads of the church say.

Further in the plot the silence of galileo was surprising for the audience as galileo was a very

clever and he knew the art of counter argument but at the moment the cardinals got control

over galileo and made him speechless. This was also very surprising for the audience because in

the previous scenes when scholars came to see the telescope but they were playing tactics so

that they avoid experimenting the telescope but at that moment Galileo’s counter his response

made them to change their tactics but which was obviously not experimented because of

stupidity of Andrea. But at the moment Galileo looked different to the audience it the current

situation portrayed to the audience that Galileo cannot debate further and he have lost all the

hopes.

At the moment the play-write created an dramatic situation we witnessed a roller coaster ride

first Galileo theory was regarded as false then it was approved and now it was rejected by the

holy office it was labeled as foolish. The current situation made us to sympathize and feel sorry

for Galileo as after all the efforts to prove the theory right he has failed again. After the

rejection of the theory the plot was continued with a song which gives us an indication that the

play write have added this song purposely because it suits the situation we as a audience

interprets from the lyrics of the song that the moments of joy does not last forever it will end

one day, exactly the same happened with Galileo the moments of joy after he was proved right

shattered into mirror pieces the moments of joy are over. The dramatic situation portrayed by

the play-write according to the audience answers all the elements of epic drama theatre.
We were aware that as sense of denial would come by Galileo because he was proved right by

father clavius but the cardinals of the holy office referred that as just a favor for him. The

current situation verified what we were thinking before this moment that the church does not

consider science as a authority they do know it’s important but they don’t want science to

come between the faith of people in church.

The question that comes in our mind is that why the secretaries were noting down everything

related to conversation with Galileo? it looked a bit strange to the audience. Another thing

which was also strange for us that when secretaries was telling the inquisitor about Galileo’s

daughter and their interaction with him while playing chess didn’t mattered to him his

gestures made it clear to the audience he was only interested in what Galileo thinks and about

his conversation with cardinals. In addition to this the audience figured out that Galileo will be

returning back to Florence when he said in a conversation with Virginia that she will be

returning with his father at this moment the our sympathy for Galileo increases as he will be

returning back empty ended and broken.

At the very same moment the clever nature of the inquisitor was very obvious to us as he was

trying to inquire more things about Galileo and was trying to convey his message to Virginia to

ask your father to give away his theory and believe in what church says .another thing which

was clear to us about Galileo when Virginia said she doesn’t know about the things related to

mathematics, was that he was a traditional man as he never discussed anything with his
daughter because he didn’t believed in equality he discussed everything he believed what

society believed in that time that men are more capable than women as he shared everything

with Andrea but not his own blood. The cunning nature of inquisitor was also very clear in front

of us as his indirect conversation with Virginia made Virginia to reveal many things about his

father such as the church and the father Galileo followed it indicates us that the inquisitor was

trying to get information from Virginia only thing which mattered to him was find out things

related to Galileo . from the current situation another question arises in minds of audience is

that is he gaining information about Galileo so that the church can restrict him conveying his

theory to people and what will happened after this.

The play write leaves audience in a puzzled moment the curiosity have increased moment by

moment we are curious to know will Galileo leave his theory and move on or will he have the

courage to go against the church.