Lullaby from "The Consul" by Gian Carlo Menotti

Character Study:

I.  Before
1.)  The event that has occurred prior to this song that has led me to this point is that my Grandchild is lying deathly ill in his cradle and I must watch over him while his Father (my son) hides in the mountains from the police and his Mother (my daughter-in-law) tries to obtain visas so that we can safely leave the country.
2.)  My thoughts and feelings just before the song begins are sorrow and fear because I know my Grandchild is suffering and dying of cold, hunger, and sickness and there is nothing I can do.  I try to bring him comfort by singing him a lullaby.

II.  During
1.)  I am the mother of John Sorel and Grandmother of the child I am singing to.
2.)  I am a poor old woman who cares very much for her family.  I am used to taking care of people.
3.)  The other character involved is my dying Grandson.
4.)  My Grandson is a dying infant.
5.)  I am in the home of my son John Sorel.  We live in a small and shabby apartment in a totalitarian European Country sometime after WWII.
6.)  I am singing to my dying Grandson.
7.)  My Grandson is present for the song.
8.)  I am singing this to comfort my Grandson as he dies.
9.)  My thoughts and feelings as I sing this song is that the baby should sleep for me because sleep for the old is too close to death.
10.)  While this is happening, my daughter-in-law, Magda, is trying to meet with the Consul to get passports for the family so that we can get out of our impoverished and oppressed country to a better place so that we can have a better quality of life.  My son, John Sorel, is hiding up in the mountains after being shot for attending a secret revolutionary meeting.

III.  After
1.)  As the song ends, I am full of woe because of the death of my Grandson and that the situation I am in has not improved, but at the same time I am happier that my grandson is no longer suffering.
2.)  The events that will occur as a result of this song is that my Grandson and I both die, and my daughter-in-law contemplates suicide in order to save my son from risking his life to return home.