Story of the Marriage of Figaro

I have select Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro. Susanna is a maid to the Countess, and she is Figaro's fiancee. Figaro is also a servant in the count's house. I chose Susanna is because she is smart, intelligent, honorable and witty. She knows that the count has evil thought about her, and she is brave to convince Figaro not taking the room next to the count. Susanna also told the Countess of the Count's intentions towards her. In order to prove it, she carefully protect herself without Count forbid she to marry Figaro. Susanna created a conspire against the Count, to prove his evil thoughts, and she is successfully married to the person she wants, Figaro. 

In the Marriage of Figaro, it demonstrate the inequality in woman's right, and women holds low social status in the Middle Age. For example, Susanna is not allowed to marry Figaro unless her uncle allows it. The satire is when Susanna told Figaro that the count wants driot de seigneur. Figaro was shocked and said: Hasn't he renounced feudal law? ( Marriage of Figaro 11:16-11:22). Susanna smiled and told him: not in my case. This scene is very ironic because the count is the ruler that renounced the driot de seigneur, but he cannot obey the law by himself. 

                                               Act 5 scene of the Marriage of Figaro

In the Act 5 of the Marriage of Figaro, the Count was trying to seduce Susanna, she let him play along, it angered Figaro because he was watching from afar. To take a revenge, Figaro was trying to seduce the Countess, but he recognized that Countess was customized by Susanna. Later, Susanna explained everything to Figaro. When the Count comes back to find Susanna, he saw his "wife" is with Figaro. The Count arrest him and accuse him for having an affair with the Countess. He still did not know that the Countess is actually Susanna. Everyone saw it and begging the Count to forgive his wife but he said he will never do so. The real Countess appeared in the coward and that is when the Count realized that he has been fooled. At the end, Susanna and Figaro were happily married. Below video has a good and brief summary about the Marriage of Figaro. I think it is useful to watch it because the opera was singing in Italian. It is hard to understand the full story.

work cite:

Kiri Te Kanawa - The Marriage of Figaro Glyndebourne 1973

KTKVault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IugFH6PxeMQ