Fact sheet on the character Don Abbondio in The Betrothed.Don Abbondio Don Abbondio is undoubtedly the most popular character in The Betrothed , as well as the first to be introduced. He is the figure with which Manzoni shows off all his comic ability; the figure of Don Abbondio is in fact comicalized by a series of unacceptable excesses, even though they are caused by weaknesses linked to the situation of the time and therefore the cause of historical conditioning that is difficult to escape. These excesses are highlighted above all by the comparison with characters in the same social context but culturally inferior, as we see in the dialogue between Perpetua and Don Abbondio, in which the shy and fearful character of the priest is revealed, which is exactly the opposite of that of his maid. Perpetua was gifted with a dose of determination, a quality that the priest certainly lacked. for example Perpetua, who is capable of finding acceptable solutions to the problems that distress the priest.
Manzoni’s comedy therefore leverages the disproportion between the causes and effects of phenomena, that is, between a reality that is difficult to deal with and the behavior of the priest, who is poor in perspective and strategies. Through comedy, understood as a parody of human weaknesses , Manzoni expresses a criticism: Don Abbondio is in fact a negative character in The Betrothed because he badly embodies Christian values. Don Abbondio’s character is outlined from the very first pages of The Betrothed, that is, from the scene of the encounter with the thugs: the fear he feels, the hopes of seeing someone in the surrounding fields to ask for help, the desire to escape, the fact of hurrying to reach the thugs in order to shorten the anguish he felt in seeing them and in having understood that the two were waiting for him, reveal his cowardly and insecure character.
Don Abbondio’s fear can also be understood from the dialogues, where the priest limits himself to stammering or to placing the blame on someone else; in the first chapter, for example, he attributes the blame to Renzo and Lucia, who had the idea of getting married. He never says a word that reveals courage, even though being a priest should have guaranteed him a certain protection from the Church. Manzoni also explains the fundamental reason that had pushed Don Abbondio to become a priest: the absolute lack in the seventeenth century of laws that protected the weak from bullies and the wicked. Thus Don Abbondio, who was certainly not born with the heart of a lion, had soon realized that in the society in which he lived he was “like a clay pot, forced to travel in the company of iron pots “. The priest had therefore decided to become a priest, which would have allowed him to spend a quiet and comfortable life, far from discomforts and problems. At the time, in fact, religious choice was often dictated by the desire to acquire immunity if not privileges, at a time when the defenses of subjects who were not tied to the structures of power were very few.
The character of Don Abbondio is almost the incarnation of ineptitude understood as the inability to cope with life situations, to relate to others in difficult cases, in which it is necessary to show a little determination. Manzoni tells us that Don Abbondio’s ineptitude is only partly the result of his nature. It is true that the religious man lived his entire life avoiding entanglements so as not to have to face risky choices. But this was almost an obligatory choice in a century in which “legal force did not protect in any way the quiet, inoffensive man who had no other means of frightening others…”. He tried not to wrong anyone and when he had to choose which side to be on, he always sided with the most powerful. The only strategy known to Don Abbondio is escape ; after all, he does not know how to listen to Perpetua’s practical advice and also suffers psychologically all the effects of the uncomfortable situation in which he is involved (continued in the file to download)
