“The Duties of Man”

In Joseph Mazzini’s essay entitled “The Duties of Man” he refers to man’s duties as those things which the heart dictates as the most sacred things which he knows, “of God, of Humanity, of the Fatherland, of the Family”.  Mazzini goes on to describe the things in life which come before rights, duties.  These duties involve the notion of “self sacrifice” which is crucial to the family’s ability to succeed, for the Fatherland to progress and for Humanity to exist.  Mazzini goes on to demonstrate his disgust with the materiality of culture which was burgeoning forth in early 19th century Italy.  In the end, Mazzini was an idealist for the working class culture of Italy.  His ideas were communist in origin, but his “Duties of Man” reflected the importance of religion in thwarting the materialism of capitalism.  Not surprisingly, Collodi was considered a “Muzzioni”, a follower of Mazzini and therefore it is not surprising that the tale of Pinocchio has several elements that correspond to the “Duties of Man”.

Pinocchio is often faced with temptation, particularly with the “Field of Miracles”.  Pinocchio wishes to make a lot of money quickly and without hard work.  Pinocchio’s intentions are good, to help his father, but like Mazzini and Collodi stress, working hard is a part of man’s duty to society.  Working yields happiness and economic benefits that one can be proud of.  Hardly working and making money is similar to the new 19th century capitalistic market that began growing in Italy during its time of industrialization.  So Collodi attempts to portray the notion that “Money does not grow on trees” quite literally.  When Pinocchio listens to the Fox and the Cat on two separate occasions and plants his 4 gold coins in hope of them sprouting thousands of gold coins, Collodi is speaking to the lower classes and attempting to portray this ideology of the hard worker earning his money, rather than hoping for a hand out.  Pinocchio learns his lesson the hard way and loses all his coins to the cat and the fox (swindlers/entrepreneurs praying on the ignorant lower class).

Just as Pinocchio must learn from his economically motivated mistakes, so must Geppetto.  Geppetto’s original intention for Pinocchio is to travel with him throughout the world and charge people money to see Pinocchio.  Thus, Geppetto’s original intention is economically motivated and what happens…Geppetto loses Pinocchio and must search for his son to get him back…because it is family that matters, not money.  Just as Geppetto must learn to appreciate his son, Pinocchio must learn to love and appreciate his father.  The two learn this on their separate adventures which culminate in the belly of the shark.  Once they escape, Pinocchio vows to take care of his father and work hard to make the money necessary to take care of him and Geppetto vows to never lose site of him again.  It is from these “duties to his fellow man” that the two characters begin to exemplify (putting family first, working hard, and humanity) what will enable Pinocchio to become a real boy; the overarching goal of Pinocchio’s timeless adventures.  As seen within this short essay, the story of Pinocchio is enmeshed within the times in which it was written in Italy.

Works Cited:

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/mazzini/mazintro.htm