The Betrothed – Analysis Chapter 15: the historical and social context, the crucial events and the narrative style of the chapter in which Renzo is arrested.
The Betrothed – Chapter 15 Analysis
Analysis of Chapter 15 of The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Places: Milan, Osteria della Luna piena, the courthouse, the city streets.
The time: night of Saturday 11th and morning of Sunday 12th November 1628.
The tripartite structure of this chapter features, in each of the three parts, two of the three main characters of the chapter, differently paired: Renzo and the innkeeper, the innkeeper and the notary, the notary and Renzo.
The presence of Renzo at the beginning and end of the chapter makes the structure circular and connects the beginning of this chapter with the previous one and the end with the following one. The setting oscillates between the spaces of the innkeeper and the notary, both strangers to Renzo.
The innkeeper puts Renzo to bed
The innkeeper reveals already in the beginning a dose of morality that pushes him to take Renzo to bed and to get paid honestly, without taking advantage of the young man’s drunkenness, besides showing himself to be prudent and provident: he locks the door, so as not to let Renzo escape, he makes sure that the innkeeper leaves her children in the care of one of their servants and, attentive to business, urges her to make sure that the customers pay and to pretend not to hear.
If there is a good dose of opportunism in his behavior, he also shows his conscience: he fills the time of his short journey with a soliloquy and however criticizes Renzo’s naivety: nice news, from a mountaineer to tell us! The conflict between city and countryside is thus confirmed as an important spatial couple in the novel. After putting him to bed, the innkeeper stops to contemplate the sleeping Renzo and it is in this scene that the word love is used in its erotic sense, in a simile that harks back to the myth of Eros and Psyche.
The innkeeper at the courthouse
With a summary they summarize the plans to prevent new riots: more bread will be produced and distributed under the control of the nobles, who reveal themselves to be allies of the police. The oxymoron guilty good man reveals that what was needed was just a poor wretch, the easiest to frame, and also completely new to the village.
In the dialogue between the innkeeper and the criminal notary the game on language becomes hilarious: the innkeeper shows an extraordinary ability in manipulating the language to divert the intimidating questions of the notary who, for his part, uses the language modeled halfway between the bureaucratic language of the edicts and the archaic language of the nobles, with refined expressions. The clash between the two is the emblem of the clash between two classes, the notary representing the nobility, in which words and reality do not coincide, the innkeeper of the people, who re-establishes the truth with full knowledge of the facts, with competence in matters of law, even greater than that of his adversary.
Renzo’s awakening
Renzo, with that almost childish amazement shown in front of the great machine of the cathedral or the loaves scattered along the streets, remains as if enchanted in front of the notary and the two armed policemen after having woken up with difficulty, as revealed by the sentences punctuated by the repetition of the polysyndeton and. nevertheless, even though he understands the situation and tries to take time to reflect, he is still so naive as to believe he has the right to be taken to Ferrer, because he is still convinced that he is a gentleman. The notary cannot allow himself to laugh at Renzo’s request, because outside the crowd is already waiting for him, he tries not to appear to be worried, but even the naive Renzo notices his concern.
As a man of power he resorts to hypocrisy and good words, but Renzo has learned not to trust and tries to drag things out and even to attempt a coup, trying to be taken to the cathedral square, to find help in the crowd. Renzo’s maturation is highlighted by the ascending climax ( he felt, he saw and he thought), a sign of his new ability to listen, observe and reason.
Renzo in handcuffs
To increase the suspense , the narrator continually interrupts the action. The dramatic turn of events of Renzo’s handcuffing is blocked by the extra-narrative information about the mannequins and by the brief meta-narrative metalepsis in which the narrator declares that he prefers realistic clarity rather than the gravity and solemnity that distances one from historical truth.
With the speech of the notary, who pretends to be clever and ends up suggesting to Renzo the way to escape, the suspense resumes and the reader wonders if and how the hero will manage to escape. The scene is blocked again with the metalepsis, another narrative information with which the narrator informs that the notary was a seasoned clever man.
On the street
The scene features the hero in action. It is one of the few truly romantic scenes in The Betrothed and Renzo is the protagonist, now smart enough to wait for the right moment before asking for help. Irony massacres the notary, with his whispering, and the cops, so stupid that they have to consult with their eyes to reach the wrong conclusion.
The narrative time switches to the present, the sentences become short, coordinated by asyndeton and excited; later, framing the notary, the scene slows down with the use of the durative imperfect (he whispered to the notary), then returns to the present with the reaction of the crowd (clearer voices of protection rise in response), while the cops, with an anticlimax, at first command, then ask, then pray until they flee.
