Brogan Hagan
English IV A
Mr. Mishou
18 February 2014
Picasso, Pablo. The Death of Harlequin. 1905. Gouache over charcoal on cardboard. National Gallery of Art. 12 Feb. 2014.
To Kill a Falcon
One of the themes of “Frederigo’s Falcon” by Giovanni Boccaccio is loss and guilt. Loss and guilt apply hand in hand with each other and overlap perfectly with the painting The Death of Harlequin by Pablo Picasso. After Frederigo had spent all his money on Monna he is at a loss because Monna will still have nothing to do with him. Then Monna’s son falls deathly sick and wishes for Frederigo’s Falcon more than anything. This puts Monna in a predicament because she knows that Frederigo would do anything for her, but if she were to just take his most beloved pet falcon while knowing she had treated him poorly in the past, she would feel guilty just using him. This is when Pablo Picasso ‘s painting comes into play with the theme of the story by mimicking Monna’s sick son in bed which resembles loss for the sick boy on the bed, he is at a loss of life, while the people looking over him are at a loss from him. The boy in bed could have his hands pressed together in a praying fashion wishing for Frederigo’s falcon from his concerned mother who feels guilty that the falcon is dead. Monna then proceeds to Frederigo’s house to retrieve the falcon but out of guilt says she wants to have dinner with Frederigo before she will bring up the falcon so it will make her look more interested in Frederigo than just his falcon. Frederigo then has no food fit for a beautiful woman like Monna so he cooks his falcon to accommodate a good dinner for Monna, and this is a tremendous loss to Frederigo. The falcon also loses its own life which relates to the boy in the painting losing his own life. During the dinner Monna brings up needing the falcon for her sick son and Fredrigo is instantly succombed to a heavy load of guiltiness by killing the one thing that could’ve saved her son. So Monna’s son dies and is another huge loss and goes perfectly with the theme of the painting by showing the sick boy in bed on the verge of death. The Boy on the Bed from The Death of Harlequin resembles a loss of life while the two people standing over him are stricken with guilt because they couldn’t do anything about his death. These are all examples of how the themes loss and g uilt go hand in hand with each other in “Frederigos Falcon” and The Death of Harlequin.
First off, I enjoy the reference to "To Kill a Mockingbird", whether or not it has relevance, and whether or not it was intentional.
ReplyDeleteMoving onto the story and this picture, I like your theme you chose. Loss and guilt, you clearly tied them together and that was great. Making the dead, or dying, man on the bed represent both the Falcon AND Monna's son was an ingenious idea specific to this painting, and I find it interesting that Monna and Federigo are so close together, then, with them being the two people standing over him.
Focusing on that last bit, I think it needs to be said just how close Federigo and Monna must have been at the end of the story. Clearly they were, since Monna ended up marrying him, but representation from here, along with what you said, make it clear as to why they were so close. The theme you went with was loss and guilt, and how they are closely tied together. Taking that a step further, we can see that a bond formed between Federigo and Monna in these horrid turn of events. Them being so close physically in the picture shows there is some bond, and this bond comes from loss and guilt. Because they experienced these strong emotions from the same turn of events, Monna could only bring herself to marry Federigo because a bond was formed, whether or not it was over a different person or animal is of no import, because they are one in the same in their eyes, just as the picture shows.
Shoot, that last comment was made by me, Zayne Kinkade. I forgot my name it in!
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