Editing Carlo Goldoni (section)

== Themes ==
Goldoni's plays that were written while he was still in Italy ignore [[religious]] and [[ecclesiastical]] subjects. This may be surprising, considering his staunch [[Catholic]] upbringing. No thoughts are expressed about death or repentance in his memoirs or in his comedies. After his move to France, his position became clearer, as his plays took on a clear [[anti-clerical]] tone and often satirized the hypocrisy of monks and of the [[Catholic Church|Church]].

Goldoni was inspired by his love of humanity and the admiration he had for his fellow men. He wrote, and was obsessed with, the relationships that humans establish with one another, their cities and homes, and the study of [[philosophy]]. The moral and civil values that Goldoni promotes in his plays are those of rationality, civility, humanism, the importance of the rising middle class, a progressive stance on state affairs, honour and honesty. Goldoni had a dislike for arrogance, intolerance and the abuse of power.

Goldoni's main characters are no abstract examples of human virtue, nor monstrous examples of human vice. They occupy the middle ground of human temperament. Goldoni maintains an acute sensibility for the differences in social classes between his characters as well as environmental and generational changes. Goldoni pokes fun at the arrogant nobility and the pauper who lacks dignity.