Paralleles of Cosi and Cosi Fan Tutte

Cosi by Louis Nowra and Cosi Fan Tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are set in completely different times but both themes of the play parallel each other. Cosi was set in 1970’s society whilst Cosi Fan Tutte was set in 1790. Cosi Fan Tutte is play about love and fidelity which parallels with what happens in Cosi. On the surface they are parallel because Lucy is unfaithful to Lewis when they are in a relationship together just as the women were in Cosi Fan Tutte. But it is much more than that. To really understand the parallels of the plays we must look at love and fidelity in depth. What really is love? What is demonstrated throughout both plays is that people have double standards towards love. In the Cosi we see free love and characters that believe in free love such as Lucy, Nick and Doug. Free love is the belief of having sexual relations according to choice, without being restricted by marriage or long-term relationships. They believe in freedom in doing whatever you want but this is the complete opposite of how they treat the mentally ill. They treat them with not dignity that makes them restricted to being behind walls of an asylum. Free love is about freedom yet they are confined to their ward like traditional marriage because people fear them. This is not the definition of love. Louis Nowra wants us to love each other and not stereotyping people by giving labels to people that we fear but instead showing respect and compassion. That is what true love is. In Cosi Fan Tutte we see two men test the love and fidelity of their girlfriends. This displays the double standards that men have on love. They believe that is alright to for them to test love. Mozart tells us that love needs to be equal that one side can’t unfaithful and that is alright. Mozart is trying to make us question what love is, like Louis Nowra did in Cosi. For there to be love, it must be equal and this is the key theme from both