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Suzanne: an ally of Figaro

Suzanne and her mistress are cunning in their turn. Indeed, the Count surprises them at the

Bad timing: Cherub is half-naked with the Countess (end of scene 9). When the Count arrives, Cherub is hiding in the bathroom but inadvertently knocks over a chair (II, 12). The Count, alerted, wants to know the identity of the hidden character and tries to open the cabinet to verify his wife's statements. Meanwhile, Suzanne, who has heard everything, takes the place of Cherub who is fleeing from the window (scenes 14 and 15). The countess, frightened by her husband, finally confesses the presence of Cherub, but she corrects herself by discovering the subterfuge devised by her servant (II, 19). They both make the Count believe that the mention of Cherubim was intended to make him jealous. The sincere fright of the Countess is seen as a clever comedy by the Count. Throughout this passage, it is Suzanne who works and leads the game, but at the end of the act the Countess also takes the initiative: she decides to change plan without warning Figaro. Thus, it is not Cherub who will be disguised as Suzanne for the meeting with the Count (II, 24), but the Countess herself, very proud of her "pretty little project" (II, 25). Act II thus sees the birth of a new countess, a strategist in her turn, capable of rivaling Figaro in the art of intrigue. In scene 9, Suzanne makes the Count believe that she grants him the right to cook "Do the women of my state have vapours, then? It's a conditioned evil, that one only takes in the boudoirs" (l. 10-11). She thus reminds us of the inequality that separates orders: a simple servant cannot afford the discomfort to which a countess is subject. In scene 8, Suzanne, like the Countess, is expected to masterfully dupe Figaro. Indeed, he doesn't recognize her immediately, but the voice betrays his fiancée when she spontaneously writes "Don't call! ». The valet then decides to simulate and turn the trap against Suzanne: he pretends to woo the Countess ("on his knees - Ah! Madame, I adore you"). This is too much, then, for the cameraman who forgets his role and blows Figaro. In the next scene, the reconciled couple plays the comedy to the Count without sparing him ("let's finish him off"). Count Almaviva, whose view is blurred by darkness, takes Figaro for "the man in the cabinet". He therefore believes that a rival persists in having an affair with his wife, a premonition that Figaro confirms when he says aloud: "Let us hurry up, madam, and repair the harm done to us earlier, when I jumped out of the window".

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