The Betrothed – Analysis Chapter 10: historical context and details on the crucial events narrated during the tenth chapter, dedicated to the Nun of Monza.
The Betrothed – Chapter 10 Analysis
Analysis of Chapter 10 of The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Chapter 10 concludes the ring structure begun in chapter 11 of The Betrothed , placing Lucia in the monastery and leaving her there to devote the next chapter to Renzo’s experiences in Milan.
The theme of the chapter is the power of the unconscious on the personality of an individual .
The chapter opens with the entrance on the scene of the prince father, whose methods and diabolical ability are finally known, first-hand.
Gertrude is authentic, instinctive, she throws herself on her knees before him, begging for forgiveness and asking for love, while the father acts like a Machiavellian prince, perfectly measuring his words, tone of voice and facial expressions. In this scene, the direct and indirect speeches prevail, especially those of the prince, who shows off all his eloquence: as the narrator emphasizes, the subtle coercion on his daughter is a choice made by a prince, not by a father.
Even the mother and brother are defined by their social role as princess and little prince, deprived of their family role and reduced to puppets in the hands of the father – prince – director. The family does not exist except as a social and political entity.
The prince intends to block his daughter’s emotionality and rationality, but since he cannot act on a rational level, because he would have to reveal to his daughter the real reasons that force her to become a nun, he then tries to raise her vanity, celebrating her as if she were going to the wedding that was denied to her. The spectacle of hypocrisy is fully represented, in which the duty consists in congratulating a girl destined for a life of seclusion and in making her, in climax , the idol, the plaything, the victim; the final presentation in which everyone left without remorse, appears as a double meaning, because the guests leave without remorse for having complimented the bride, but also without the remorse of being accomplices in the sacrifice of a victim.
To complete the work of dizziness, the little prince’s governess intervenes, one of those extras sketched with great realistic vivacity.
Gertrude’s awakening is immediately distressing: the chattering old woman places before her the image of her brother, already overbearing and domineering as he will have to be when he becomes prince and who even appears as the victim who must be disturbed because of her, with the usual inversion between appearance and reality.
Gertrude’s mother appears absolutely unaware of her husband’s maneuvers and the only time she feels invested with some responsibility and believes she is charged with choosing the godmother, her only line in the whole novel is cut short by the prince to give “freedom of choice to his daughter”. He praises his daughter because she has so much judgment, but in reality he wants to tell her to have judgment in choosing the godmother.
In the last act of the tragedy (rr. 296-380), even the prince appears tense, but his intelligence never derails, because it is not subject to irrationality and emotion and, almost as if he could read his daughter’s mind, he blocks any doubts in their tracks: until now every step has been a free choice by Gertrude, who would have had the possibility of changing her mind at any moment, but not anymore.
If she is hesitant, the vicar might think that her father has forced her and he, to save his own honor and that of the house, would be forced to besmirch Gertrude’s, revealing the real reason that pushed her to ask for the nunship, that is, the affair with the page. The blackmail could not be more explicit and apparently legitimate, if it were not undermined by the erroneous premise that it is the affair with the page, and not her father’s will, that forces Gertrude to become a nun; instinct would lead her to reveal the truth to the vicar, but the father’s logic is irrefutable and the prelate, however authoritative, cannot help her.
The figure of the vicar , on the other hand, appears rather ambiguous and very different from that of Cardinal Borromeo, who, faced with a similar case, will react in the opposite way (chap. XXII, rr. 224 et seq.): he allows himself to be influenced by the prince’s authority and questions the girl in the form prescribed by the rules, without adapting the rules to the person in front of him, who is visibly uncomfortable.
The summary of Gertrude’s life while waiting to be ordained a nun once again underlines the conflict of her soul : the open air space is described as an element of a symbolic spatial couple, the other element of which is the closed monastery.
The second part of the chapter and the discussion of the nun’s life in the convent are introduced by a narrative twist consisting of a reflection on the value of the Christian religion that echoes a passage from the Catholic Morality.
In the convent Gertrude, now free from her father’s presence, even if forced into seclusion could find a meaning to her life, instead she remains at the mercy of the inconsistency of her feelings, which make her go from one extreme to another without giving her satisfaction or peace.
The narrator’s judgment of condemnation of Gertrude’s attitude is mitigated by the use of expressions of human understanding, with the judgmental adjective unhappy.
The following is a passage that deals with the facts concerning Gertrude’s meeting and relationship with Egidio , which were given ample space in Fermo e Lucia. The seventeenth-century historian recounts in Historiae Patriae that Gian Paolo Osio, the character who inspired the figure of Egidio, “young and rich, idle… chanced to see one of them and they spoke to each other lovingly”.
Manzoni reduces the seduction phase to a minimum, limiting himself to indicating that from one of his little windows, Egidio saw Gertrude and one day dared to address her.
Equally silent is Gertrude’s passion, of which we are given to know only the effects on her and it is up to the reader to reconstruct her interior story.
The ellipsis of the murder of the lay nun is revealed only by the indication that more could have been learned if, instead of searching far away, one had dug close by.
Once the long analepsis is over, the narrator picks up the story where he left off in the previous chapter, even though the climate has changed. The reader, after the drama and horror, suddenly finds himself in an everyday atmosphere, although disturbed by Gertrude’s equivocal attitude, even more disturbing when seen from Lucia’s point of view.
The final metalepsis acts as a narrative turning point, which foretells a step back to the morning of the same day and evokes Don Rodrigo’s feelings before even introducing him on stage
