Point of View

As a play, Galileo has little choice but to take place in the third-person perspective. Though the audience is usually attached narratively with Galileo following his actions and speeches, at key points several scenes do not involve Galileo. This would include Scene Nine, a carnival scene. This scene is crucial in providing a historic context for Galileo's research in order to attain a broad sense of how Galileo is affecting the world and the existing social order. This augments the importance and weight of Galileo's actions; Galileo is not just affecting his servants and daughter but potentially the entire class structure and the hegemony of the Church.

A second time the point of view breaks from its alliance with the protagonist Galileo is Scene Eleven, in which Barberini as the new pope, decides Galileo's fate. The third and most important break from Galileo occurs in Scene...