comment on symbol

The title of the play, Amadeus, translates into "God's love" and thus becomes ironically symbolic in the play. Salieri continually tries to gain recognition of God's love for him, especially since his "one desire was to join all the composers who had celebrated his glory through the long Italian past." However, he sees an expression of God's love only in Mozart's music, which baffles him and drives him to the verge of madness. When he hears one of Mozart' s compositions, Salieri confesses, "it seemed to me that I had heard a voice of God-and that it issued from a creature whose own voice I had also heard-and it was the Voice of an obscene child!"