The Italian: A Gothic Romance

1
The Italian A Gothic Romance

• Gothic
• Terror and suspense (sublime) but, on the whole,
  only isolated episodes
• Persecution of innocent victims (E. and V.).
• Mock-medieval setting, ruins
• Underground, secluded places
• Sublime scenery
• Supernatural events
• Mysterious, satanic characters

• Romance
• Improbable situations
• Flat characters (types)
• The victimized innocent girl
• The villain
• Poetic prose
• Emotion, fantasy
• Disguises, Mistaken identities, Recognitions
  (anagnoresis), Coincidences
• Mysteries, suspense

2
The Prologue

• An English gaze
• Them vs. us
• Casts positive characters as very English
  middle-class tourists in Italy
• Ellena proud of being a working-woman
• always proper, preserves her identity
• End English garden vs Italian landscape

3
Romance

• Masterplot from medieval romance knight loves
  damsel in distress. Obstacles (natural-villains-
  or supernatural-monsters, dragons). Quest.
  Adventures. Suspense. Hero overcomes terror to
  deliver her Platonic reunion of teo halves.
• Vivaldi is like a knight of chivalry ch. 11,
  141)
• Characters ignorant of their birth.
• Mistaken identities
• Agnitions (anagnorsis)
• Coincidences (e.g. fishermen in conversation give
  hints of where Ellena has been carried (Ch. 9,
  125-6) Vivaldi reaches the convent on the day E.
  is forced to become a novice (CH. 11139)

4
Travel Narrative

• 2/3 of the text, on the road, away from home
• Abduction, flights, pursuits
• A device to send maidens on distant and exciting
  journeys without offending the proprieties
  (Moers, 126)
• A feminine substitute for the picaresque.

5
Italian Clichés in Ann Radcliffes The Italian

• Love story
• Italy as source of horrifying otherness
• Machiavellian characters, forces of oppression
  and containment
• Intrigues, poison
• Italy as land of the Sublime and the picturesque
• sublime settings (ruins, mountains)
• sublime circumstances (manifestations of the
  alien nature of Italy)
• Picturesque common people, scenery, and
  circumstances
• Music

6
Word painting

• Most important feature Ut pictura poesis.
  Imitation of painting with words. Landscape is
  the principal character of the novel
• Imitates landscape painters (vedutismo) Poussin,
  Claude Lorrain, Salvator Rosa
• Called the Salvator Rosa of British novelists
• Creates a marvellous Italy (without having seen
  it) from paintings, theatre backdrops and travel
  books --the Italy the Romantic poets and future
  writers will describe
• Direct line RadcliffeByronRuskinJames.
• Puts Gilpins theories into practice.

7
The Love Story

• Falling in love in church (like Petrarch with
  Laura) Ch. 1,p.9
• Love at first sight ("amor che a cor gentil ratto
  s'apprende")
• Window / garden scene scene.Ellena pronounces his
  name p.17 Ch. II, p. 34
• Cf. Romeo and Juliet
• Love access to Paradise Ch. II, p. 35.
• V. is like a knight of chivalry ch. 11, 141)
• Meeting again in convent (ch. 11, 139)

8
Cruelty, Horrors

• Few episodes of real horror. Most of them
  imaginary
• Intrigues to separate lovers for family pride
• Mysterious apparitions and voices under the arch
• Vivaldis imprisonmentdarkness, creaking doors,
  blood
• Ellenas abductiondark carriage
• Forcing her to take the veil against her will
• Enclosure in hideous chamber a stone chamber,
  secured by doors of iron (Ch.11, 146)

9
The Villains

• Aristocratic characters
• The marchesa (Ch. 1 p. 12) hypocrisy (ch.9,119)
• The marchese (Ch. 2 p. 37)

• Bandits, ruffians etc.

10
The Villains

• Ecclesiastical characters
• The mysterious monk (ch. 1 and 3)
• The friar with a ruffians heart (Ch. 6, p. 78)
• Schedoni (Ch. 2, p. 42)
• Prototype of dark fascinating villains.. Byronic
  heroes
• Heir to Milton's Satan (Fallen angel)
• The nun guiding Ellena in convent a countenance
  of gloomy malignity a spectre newly risen from
  the grave(Ch. 6, p. 79)
• The Abbess of San Stefano a woman of some
  distinction cares a lot about noble families
  (ch.6, 80) can proceed to extremities, has the
  power of injustice and depravity Imagination
  cannot draw the horrors which she might inflict
  on Ellena if she resists (ch.8, 112-13)
• The Inquisition
• The mysterious confession

11
Schedoni

• A man of birth and of fallen fortune
  impenetrable veil upon his origin gloomy pride
  of a disappointed spirit , haughty and
  disordered spirit frequent penances maybe the
  consequences of some hideous crime many
  passions habitual gloom and severity (Ch. 2 p.
  42-43)
• a man whose passion might impel him to the
  perpetration of almost any crime, how hideous so
  ever (Ch. 4, 62)
• Pious and admired for his piety. Instruments of
  torture and devotion in his cell (ch.9,
  120)Torments of the minde and penance made him
  resemble a spectre rather than a human being
  exhibited the wild energy of something not of
  this earth (ch.10, 128)
• V. considers him the prophet and the artificer
  of all my misfortunes (ch.9, 121)

12
Schedoni 2

• After V. has insulted him, meditates a terrible
  revenge. Tempted to kill V. but fears vengeanc
  eof V. family
• Ambitious. He had long assumed a character of
  severe sanctity chiefly for the purpose of
  lifting him to promotion. (ch.10, 127)

13
Sublime Settings

• Naples and the Vesuvius Ch 1, p.15
• The arch Ch. 1 p. 17
• Roman tower and arches, a mass of ruins near the
  edge of a cliff (Ch 1, p.27) and Ch. 4, p. 60.
• Vault underneath the tower, walls stained with
  blood, staircase, creaking closing door, strongly
  grated casement, garment covered with blood on
  the floor
• Mountains and precipices along the way of E.s
  carriage drive (Ch. 6, p. 74-76) around the
  monastery insurmountable ramparts, gigantic
  masses (77)
• Spires and long terraces of a monastery on the
  jaws of a terrific defile (76)
• Solitary passages of the convent painted with
  subjects indicatory of the severe superstitions
  of the place tending to inspire melancholy and
  awe (Ch. 6, p. 79)
• View from the turret (Ch. 8, pp. 105-7)
• Vivaldis trip over some of the wildest tracts
  of the Apennine, among scenes which seemed
  abandoned by civilized society to the banditti
  who haunted their recesses (Ch. 10, p. 131)

14
Sublime fearThe Monk

• A demon in the garb of a monk haunting Vivaldi
• 1st appearance of the monk under dark arch of a
  ruin at midnight Ch. 1 p. 17, 2nd appearance
  p. 20 3rd appearance glides in silence and
  disappears (Ch.2 p.25-7) 4th appearance(Ch. 1 p.
  12) death prophecy (Ch.3 p.50) 5th appearance
  and flight followed by V. and Paulo (Ch. 7, p.86
  ff.)
• Imprisonment in vault under tower darkness,
  blood on walls, bloody clothes on ground (ch. 7)

15
Effect of fearful events on V.

• His imagination, elevated by wonder and painful
  curiosity, was prepared for somehting above the
  reach of common conjecture and beyond the
  accomplishment of human agency . he had
  soared to a region of fearful sublimity (Ch.
  6, p.70)
• When looking for Ellena views with pleasing
  sadness the dark rocks and precipices, the gloomy
  mountains and vast solitudes nor was the convent
  he was approaching a less sacred feature of the
  scene, as its gray walks and pinnacles appeared
  beyond the dusky groves (Ch. 11, p. 135)

16
Sublime fear the abduction

• Knocking and screams (Ch. 6, p. 72-73)
• Masked men throw a veil over her head and drag
  her to carriage (Ch. 6, p. 73)
• Carriage drive among towering tops of mountains,
  or sometimes veiny precipices and tangled
  thickets pinnacles and vast precipices(74)

17
Effect of fearful events on Ellena

• Her spirits were gradually revived and elevated
  by the grandeur of images around her Here the
  objects seem to impart somewhat of their own
  force, their own sublimity to the soul. It is
  scarcely possible to yield to the pressure of
  misfortune while we walk, as with the Deity,
  amidst his most stupendous works! (Ch. 6, p. 75)
  
• Experiences a dreadful pleasure in looking down
  upon the irresistible flood emotion heightened
  into awe as she crosses bridge. (76) It is as
  the passage from the vale of death to the bliss
  of eternity (76)

18
Effect of fearful events on Ellena. 2

• At the gate of the convent experiences luxurious
  and solemn kind of melancholy, which a view of
  stupendous objects inspires (77)
• E. escapes her cell and ascends to a turret to
  see the wide and freely sublime scene without
  so that the consciousness of her prison was
  lost. Looks down precipices with dreadful
  pleasure. Her mind was capable of being highly
  elevated or sweetly soothed by scenes of nature
  (Ch. 8, p. 105-7)
• Retreats into poetry (Tasso) wandering in the
  imaginary scenes of the poet

19
Picturesque Scenery and Cicumstances

• Serenade in the garden and fireworks on the bay
  Ch. 1 p. 21
• Vivaldi sets off for Altieri Soothing
  twilight, enchanting climate, Vesuvius dark
  and silent Lazzaroni playing morra (Ch. 2, p.
  33)
• Excursions with Ellena in moonlight with music
  and fishermen dancing (Ch.3 p. 46)
• Sunset with fishing-boats as Mrs. Bianchi accepts
  to let Ellena marry Vivaldi (Ch.3 p. 47)
• Scenery in Abruzzo snowy mountains, majestic
  grace of the palms, cathedral with spires,
  narrow pointed roofs of the cloisters (Ch. 6,
  pp. 76-77)
• Church ceremonies the lady abbess leading the
  train, dressed in her pontifical robes etc. (Ch
  11, p. 137).
• Arcadian setting V. playing the flute on a rock
  Ch. 11, p. 143-4).

20
Picturesque characters

• Beatrice the servant wordy like Juliets nurse
  (Ch.3 p.51-2)
• Paulo
• The pilgrims

21
Intrigues

• Schedoni and the Marchesa make plans to prevent
  Vivaldis marriage. they concerted in private
  the means of accomplishing their general end
  (Ch. 2, p.44) .
• Someone is calumniating Ellena to the Marchese
• The Marchesa and the Abbess have planned to make
  Ellena either take the veil or marry someone
  chosen by them (Ch. 8, p. 99)

22
Mysteries

• Who and what is the Monk? One of the banditti
  (p. 24) or a supernatural being? Vivaldi was led
  on as by an invisible hand (24) and 94. Or
  Schedoni himself? (Ch. 3, p.56-57. Ch. 4, p.59).
  Or someone masked as a monk?
• Has Mrs Bianchi been poisoned? (Ch. 3, p.56-57)
  How did the Monk know about her death?
• Who abducted Ellena? Where did the third abductor
  go? Is he the same man as the Friar at the
  Monastery? (Ch. 6, p. 78)
• Who keeps V. and Paulo prisoners? The Monk?
  Robbers? A superhuman being? (Ch. 7, p. 98)
• The Confession at S. Maria del Pianto (Ch. 7, p.
  94-96)

23
Music

• Ellenas singing in church (ch.1 p.9)
• Divine melody in garden (ch.1 p.)
• Serenade duet
• Singing of vespers in cathedral among Abruzzi
  mountains (Ch. 6, p. 78)

24
Music 2

• Singing of sister Olivia reveals superior degree
  of fervency and penitence and attracts Ellena
  (Ch. 8, p. 101)
• sound of instruments and voices directs V. to
  convent where E. is a prisoner.
• In the church V. hears such full and entrancing
  music as frequently swells in the high festivals
  of the Sicilian courts, and is adapted to inspire
  that sublime enthusiasm which sometimes elevates
  its disciples. (Ch 11, p. 136)
• Scenery has the same effect on E. as music it
  was to her like sweet and solemn music a prelude
  to hearing V. play the flute Ch. 11, p. 143-4).
  Arcadian setting