Shawshank Redemption and “Sull’aria” from Le Nozze di Figaro

This was my first time watching this scene from Shawshank Redemption and my initial thoughts about the aria was that it was inspiring. It didn’t make me think of despair or loss, but instead it gave me hope that there will be better days ahead to come. When Red played the opera on the PA system all his fellow jail mates, going through their own personal struggles, had stopped whatever they were doing and listened to each and every word that was sung. Even though none of them knew the meaning behind the words being sung.

Personally, I do not blame Red for not wanting to know the true meaning for what the women had actually sung because it would most likely change their initial emotions that they felt. Without knowing what was said they had to rely on other intuitive senses and this in some ways I believe makes a person feel a more unique and personal emotion. Therefore, knowing what was sung could have altered their emotions for the worse and have themselves loose that sense of hope and well being that they had initially felt when they first heard the song. I believe that this sense of not knowing is not ignorant but instead mindful. Mindful of the fact that not knowing will not hurt anyone and in return you can listen to what your senses and emotions are telling you.

Countess Almaviva and her servant, Susanna, are singing passionately about trying to get her husband to admit that he had cheated on her. They are trying to catch him within the act. They are hopeful and giddy that their plan is going to work and that he will admit what he has done. Both woman when singing feel powerful and in charge, especially countess Almaviva. Countess Almaviva is using this power in hopes of finding the truth. This journey of finding the truth has brought her freedom and a sense of courage that I do not believe that she had within the past.

However, after learning the true interpretation of the aria I can understand in some sense how Countess Almaviva and Susanna relates to Red and the other prisoners. I could be incredibly wrong within my interpretation since I have never seen Shawshank Redemption. But, both Red and the prisoners and Countess Almaviva had been feeling days where they believed that nothing could be worse than what they were experiencing right now, until the next day when things continued to get worse. For Red and the prisoners it was being stuck within the confinements of the jail. For Countess Almaviva it was the feeling of being cheated on and lied to constantly by the one that was suppose to love her the most. However, when Countess Almaviva finally begins to stick up for herself and constructs a plan to catch her husband, her bad days that kept getting worse became more hopeful, and with her hope came her power and freedom. This power and freedom is what the men within the prison are hearing and it allows them to feel this sense of hope. Little did they know that this power was gathered from a plan to expose a cheating husband.