This passage is all too true, both in Peter Shaffer's ‘Amadeus' and in life in general. However the play is also concerned with the destructive nature of ignorance and naivety. Salieri is jealous not just of Mozart's talent, but of the fact that God gave the talent to “Mozart … spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantine Mozart”. He is envious of the vessel of God's laughter at the ‘patron saint of mediocrity' as he had dubbed himself. Not only did God double-cross Salieri, but he did it using this “obscene child”. It was thi ....