Verdi La Traviata

Violetta’s illness is consumption, an older term used in reference to the disease of tuberculosis (TB). Tuberculosis was a widespread and fatal illness in the nineteenth century in Europe. The illness was so widespread it became romanticized by a variety of artists who felt that acquiring it equated to a specific kind of emotional quality or temperament. Romantics viewed the illness as the symbol of passion and sensitivity. In other words, TB was mythologized and became a part of popular art and folklore of the period. Another important social aspect of tuberculosis during the nineteenth century was its association with a lower class or undesirable class of people. Because the poor, malnutritioned, and overcrowded populations of society typically suffered from the disease most, such conditions were

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id her illness is overcoming her. Violetta meets Alfredo, but she takes ill and rushes to another room consumed by the coughing and frailty characteristic of consumption. Violetta is smitten by Alfredo’s charms and gives him a camellia, her favorite flower. This is symbolic because she tells him to come back when the flower dies, much like she, his flower, will die when he does come back at the end of the story. When Alfredo leaves the part Violetta sings Sempre libera degg’io, a song that shows the futility of trying to share love between classes, “When alone, [Violetta] wonders anxiously about the ardent and truthful love confession of Alfredo. But her condition doesn’t allow a real love: she lives as a courtesan, and this low morals life is the sole remedy to her illness” (Characters 1). In Act Two, we see Violetta and Alfredo as happy as they will ever be. Unbeknownst to Alfredo, Violetta unselfishly sells her possessions in order to provide the funds for their idyllic existence. Alfredo becomes aware of this and leaves for Paris in a search for income. In the meantime his father, Giorgio Germont, arrives to persuade Violetta that she must abandon Alfredo in order to spare him and his sister the scandal of involvement
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1273
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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