Antonio Salieri in Amadeus and the Spirit of Cain

The character of Antonio Salieri is beautifully developed in Milos Forman's 1984 film Amadeus. Though he bears little resemblance to the historical Salieri, the portrait of a disillusioned man of mediocre talent is realistic and believable, one that we can readily sympathize with. It serves as an excellent example of what happens when a man lives for his own desires.

In the film, Salieri as a boy prays for great musical talent. He tries to make a deal with God: if God will endow him with superb talent, then Salieri will praise Him all the days of his life. It sounds innocent enough, until you begin to understand Salieri's motives.

Salieri wants to be the object of adoration. This desire is more powerful than his love of both music and God. Mozart, by contrast, lives and breathes music purely for the love of music, and the fame that results from his phenomenal talent is of secondary importance to him.

Sure, Salieri promises to praise God, but his tactic is to use that promise as bait to try to manipulate God into giving him the coveted talent and fame. When God makes it clear that He will not be manipulated, instead giving talent and fame to the dissolute Mozart, Salieri feels perfectly justified in condemning God.

What a tragedy that Forman's Salieri is infected with the spirit of Cain. Equally tragic is that the priest, a man who has agreed to represent God to the world, and who has come to receive Salieri's confession, is himself so naïve and ignorant of the Scriptures that he fails to recognize Salieri's misplaced priorities, rather than the seemingly unfair whims of a capricious God, as the real cause of Salieri's unhappiness. The priest, certainly a well-meaning man, is dismally blind to the spirit of Cain, and thus he botches what is probably his one and only opportunity to try to draw this lost soul back to God. After Salieri has masterfully laid out his case against God, the poor priest is speechless, utterly unable to put things in proper perspective, helplessly leaving the already shipwrecked Salieri to drown in his sin.

So then, where did Salieri miss the mark? How could he have lived a life of fulfillment and contentment rather than constant frustration and humiliation?

Very, very simply, by acknowledging the sovereignty of God, and by seeking God's will rather than trying to impose his own will on God.

That's it! Sounds incredibly simple, doesn't it? Ah, but the most elementary things of God are also the most challenging, and by the same token, the most rewarding, if and when we finally ever get them right.

Is it possible that Salieri's love for music came from God? Absolutely. Music is a gift from God, and to love and appreciate beautiful music is to acknowledge the gift of beauty, which comes from the Giver of all good things. Nothing wrong with that.

Did God, however, also give Salieri the desire to be a famous musician? This is where Salieri makes his fatal mistake. He accuses God of giving him the desire for great talent and then tormenting him by leaving that desire unfulfilled. But is this accusation justified?

Salieri desires to be the object of people's admiration, more than he desires to use the gift of music to worship and celebrate the Giver of that gift. That desire most definitely did not come from God, though Salieri insists that it did. So where did it come from? Well, let us analyze it and I will let you be the judge.

It was a desire which, if fulfilled, would have catapulted Salieri to stardom. Salieri would have composed divine sacred music to placate what in his mind is a childish, greedy, conceited and petulant God who throws tantrums and selfishly insists on hogging all the glory for Himself. But it is Salieri, not God, who would have been the humble recipient of the audience's thunderous applause. It is Salieri, not God, who would have been followed around by mobs of fawning admirers, worshipping the ground he walked on. It is Salieri, not God, who would have called the shots and decided how things would be done. Where does a desire like that come from?

Let us continue. When Salieri sees that his own fame is being eclipsed by Mozart's, he responds by becoming angry. His pride is wounded. Rather than be thankful to God for the gift of beautiful music that has come to mankind via Mozart's pen, rather than lose himself in the enjoyment of that music and be thankful to God for the ability to enjoy it, Salieri becomes obsessed with the thought of destroying Mozart, even to the point of seriously considering killing him. He rationalizes this by saying that God was unfair in His distribution of talent. He considers himself morally superior to God, yet his own heart is filled with jealousy, revenge and murder. Where do thoughts like that come from?

Had Salieri stepped back and examined his own heart in the light of Scripture, he would have stopped hating Mozart and wept over the depravity of his own soul.

Had he earnestly searched the Scriptures, he would have found a God who is infinitely more concerned with the condition of the human soul than He is with the quality of the music. Had he carefully read the story of Cain, he would have recognized himself in Cain, and would have come face to face with a God whose love and compassion far surpasses the hideous deed that Cain has committed; a God who desires nothing more than to have an intimate relationship with Cain, even after he has murdered his brother; a God who pleads with Cain to change his heart, to put aside envy and come back to the loving arms of God. Cain's refusal to repent, choosing instead to blame God for his own poor decisions and thus continue to be miserable and angry, is heartbreaking, especially since he could have so easily made the right decision and basked in the warmth of God's love and forgiveness.

So, too, Salieri could have repented of his envy and found healing for his soul. He could have discovered that God had something far better for him than the fleeting and fickle adoration of people. He would have been able to see Mozart with godly compassion, without the burden of envy and bitterness. He would have seen the vast spiritual emptiness in Mozart's life, an emptiness that no amount of music or wild partying could ever fill. And he would have had something worthwhile to offer to the dying Mozart.

Historically accurate or not, it is a lesson we would all do well to take to heart.

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