Cosi Fan tutte is a very interesting play with unique ideas, characters and environment itself. Cosi Fan tutte is interesting because in the play itself, it has the idea of making a play which is around love and social relationships which is juxtaposed with the background of war and in the play it is used to amazing effect. The play uses the background to make certain ideas more interesting and to question our morales which is reflected very well in the comedy aspect of the play. The aspect of comedy in general is very chaotic because there are those that see that you can make any joke as long as it is for a laugh and there are those that think we should not say any jokes which are even somewhat offensive. In this play the area in which it is okay to make a joke is morally grey because it is usually okay to make a joke about (in my opinion) but we see in the play how those that truly suffer from war can be affected by those jokes and not in a good way. It does very well to challenge the audiences ideas/ethics on comedy and when and what should be allowed to be used as a joke. A great example of this would be Henry. Henry is a character from the play who has a problem in which he cannot let go of his father and the fact that he died and usually carries a toy soldier around with him in remembrance of him thus making him very sensitive to the topic of war. This character challenges the idea of when is a type of comedy allowed as comedy is usually allowed for anything because it is a joke however in this case he stops certain jokes from being made because he does not like it when something very serious for is made fun of even though it is made fun of in a good way. The background environment of a war also highlights how different this play is compared to the outside world and it stands out more because of it. It is used to great affect to describe how the people inside the theatre are less mad/just as mad as those on the outside which is ironic because in the case of the other characters they point out that people don’t want to see the play because it does not fit what the others/people on the outside of the people believe in (war is the big thing outside the theatre) and so the director is seen as mad however the characters inside the theatre see the outside audience as just as mad because they do not want love in a play and instead follow what is happening which is war.
