Through moralist eyes, the theme of Verdi's La Traviata could easily appear to be a censure of Violetta's lifestyle. Indeed, some of Alfredo's first words to her are "in costal guisa v'ucciderete" ("in this fashion you will kill yourself"). However, Verdi and Piave's true intent for their heroine was likely far less critical and far more tragic. For Violetta, sadness corresponds almost directly with disease and death. Her tuberculosis lurked wherever there was sorrow, and served as a physical projection of her emotions. Her life as a courtesan, filled with gaiety and passion, is an escape from sorrow she is forced to take. Yet while she suffers so greatly, she ultimately sacrifices herself for the happiness of someone else. Violetta is a tragic, compassionate character who is forced to live every day as if being pursued by death itself.
             As stated above, sadness and illness were directly related for Violetta. In act one, her life as a "kept woman" provides her with distractions to keep misery at bay. In just her second line, she calls upon pleasure to "dull my sufferings" (m. 53). However, even she calls the lifestyle "aride follie" ("barren folly," m. 18, Act I finale), and it becomes clear early on that tuberculosis finds sadness enough to haunt her, here. While Gastone introduces Alfredo, the audience is informed of Violetta's history of disease (m. 119), and almost immediately following the "Brindisi," she suffers two consecutive attacks.
             While the others leave to enjoy themselves, Alfredo remains with Violetta cuing the beginning of true love, and an apparent end (at least for one act) of her disease. While Alfredo insists on his "ignoto amor" ("unknown love," m 193) in the duet, "Un dì felice," Violetta appears to treat him as just another man. Her reply to his first extended pass...