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‘Only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and fidelity’
What does Nowra suggest about the importance of love?
During the 1970s, the pace of change in Melbourne’s society was increasingly rapid and it was evident by people's perceptions of love and fidelity. However, these ideas and concepts of love were undermined by the war happening in Vietnam, which elevated the awareness of war instead of love. Louis Nowra’s ‘Cosi’ illustrates the complexity of how important love is through Lewis, Nick, Lucy and the patients’ understanding and approach towards the real meaning of love. Through this, Nowra shows how important love is within these characters especially Lewis and the patients as they struggle through the production of Mozart’s ‘Cosi fan tutte’.
At the beginning, Lewis is unsure of himself - this is evident in his interactions with the patients. This can be seen by Lewis’ lack of confidence and determination as a director- ‘don’t know’, ‘I need the money’ and also by the fact the he was unable to stop Roy from hijacking the production and Doug from lighting fires. Furthermore, it can be seen that Lewis’ perception on love and that ‘love is not so important nowadays’ shows us a subtle influence of Nick and Lucy’s perception on love. This illustrates for us an incomplete character inside Lewis as he was unable to express himself freely and was easily influenced by others. Later on we find out that Lewis realizes his passion on love as he goes through the play ‘Cosi’ with the patients and realizes that ‘without love, the world wouldn’t mean much’.
Blocking the real essence of love, the issue of the war happening in Vietnam is constantly being raised by Nick and Lucy as they express their true intentions towards the patients. By Lewis’ quote about Lucy, ‘she hates me doing an opera about love and fidelity while thousands of Vietnamese are being killed by the American troops’, this leaves a gap between Lewis and Lucy creating a divide within their relationship. Parallel to Lucy, Nick also shows that love is less significant within the society and that ‘only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity’. Hence showing Nick’s sanctimonious nature when he himself believes in infidelity- ‘Women shouldn’t come between mates, its only sex’
Throughout the play, the patients show the variety of ways in which love is defined. This is shown through Doug’s aggressive approach towards love, ‘this is the era of free love and orgies’. This supports the fact that the social evolution in Melbourne has reached a point where individual’s rights to freedom in how they choose to engage in romantic relationships are dominant. Furthermore, it is also shown through Roy’s cynical views on love and that ‘love is what you feel when you don’t have enough emotion left to hate’, this obviously shows the effect of his lonely childhood distorting his views on love, ‘he spent most of his early life in orphanages being farmed out to foster parents’. On the other side, Henry shows us an insight on which he supports fidelity and this was evident when he was being provoked by Nick, ‘my mother loved my father, no one else!’ It can also be seen in the play the term ‘unrequited love’ evident by Cherry’s uncontrollable desires toward Lewis and that Lewis is unable to stop Cherry from force feeding him, ‘with someone like you I could be true and faithful’
By Nick being a hypocrite, Lucy being unfaithful and Roy’s and Doug’s cynical perception on love, ‘Cosi’ demonstrates the variety of views about love in Melbourne during the 1970’s in which it juxtaposes the notion that love is precious. However, it is also evident that love still exist in times of struggle, and that love is significant among others through Lewis, Henry and Cherry’s opinions. Although Lucy shows no interest on love, love still exists inside her as it is the force that built a relationship between her and Lewis. This shows us love is everywhere and it can be seen in any way or form and that Nowra aims to show the readers that love is significant throughout the society .
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