Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei, at the start of the play, is a highly-respected scientist and astronomer and professor at the University of Padua. He has a brilliant mind and is especially adept at looking at the natural world with fresh, unprejudiced eyes; that is, he does not rely on preconceived notions or faith. This puts him directly at odds with the establishment in the form of the Catholic Church, which depends on the long-held view of the universe as one reason for its continued power.

He is confident in his abilities and acumen and has little patience for those of lesser intellect or those too invested in the traditional (wrong) view of the universe. He is also slyly shrewd, as evidenced by the episode in which he claimed the telescope as his own invention and stated he worked on it for seventeen years, when in fact he merely stole...