The Betrothed – Analysis Chapter 9: in-depth analysis of the Nun of Monza, the narrative style used and the themes covered.
The Betrothed – Chapter 9 Analysis
Analysis of Chapter 9 of The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Chapter 9 forms a single block with chapter 10, with which it creates a ring structure containing the broad central analepsis on the life of the nun of Monza .
- In chapter 9: Lucia’s arrival and conversation with Gertrude, analepsis up to the incident with the page;
- In chapter 10: analysis of the consequences of the affair with the page until Lucia’s arrival, conversation with Lucia.
The central theme appears to be the conflict presented in various aspects, from the internal conflict of the nun between opposing feelings to that between her and her father, from the conflict between appearance and reality to that between education aimed at the development of the person and repressive education, from the clash between desires and feelings of guilt.
The rhythm is mostly binary and, in particular, the conflict between Gertrude and the family materializes in the refusal of dialogue by relatives and servants.
The events take place on the morning of Saturday 11 November 1628, with an analepsis from 1603 to approximately 1617.
All the characters present on the scene show generosity and delicacy of spirit: the situation still seems to be under the protective wing of Father Cristoforo and the relationship between Renzo and Lucia is very delicate, they communicate without words and show great harmony.
The guardian father breaks this atmosphere, proving himself, like all the guardian fathers in the novel, to be the opposite of Father Cristoforo and in fact he pays a gallant compliment to Lucia without taking into account his role and the girl’s sensitivity.
The incipit of this chapter has the tone of a rude awakening, underlined by the lexical choice: a truncated word (urtar) and other words with vibrant sounds (with as many as five r’s): urtar, barca, contro, proda, are followed by the three s’s of the verb scosse which, after the slow rhythm and the poetic atmosphere, dominated by sweet sounds, seems to shake not only Lucia, but also the reader and prepares him for a tormented and dramatic atmosphere.
The narrator has again taken an emotional distance from the characters, returning to realism, speaking of practical things, such as economic aspects and physical needs, rest and food.
Manzoni’s attitude towards the humble is rather ambiguous: on the one hand, in portraying the boatman and the carter, he lets a romantic populism shine through, which exalts their Christian charity in a world of opportunists, but on the other hand the two humble characters are treated with an attitude of superior paternalism and with a good-natured irony that underlines the colorful popular language.
The presentation of the nun of Monza follows the pattern reserved for the main characters, therefore an indirect presentation of the guardian father. When the nun then enters the scene, every detail provides a clue to her character and her history, starting from her segregation behind a grate, isolated from the world, like a prisoner or a mysterious being.
We move on to a very refined language for the portrait, one of the most beautiful in literature, which manages to capture, through skillfully contrasted physical details, the expressions of the face and the position of the hands, as well as a deep interior drama. The description is based on indeterminate expressions (she could have looked twenty-five years old) correlated (sometimes…at certain times…other times…when…who…who…) and continually corrected by the adversative but.
The portrait proceeds from top to bottom; the interior conflict is visualized in the coloristic opposition of black and white, in which the faded pink stands out, the only note of color, as of vitality, of that “withered flower”.
The movements of the eyes become clues, visible reflections of the soul, even if only a careful observer could have read the contradiction of feelings; it is perhaps the clothing that provides the greatest clue to the moral nature of the nun’s conflict: the need to appear elegant and to show her hair is revealed as the extreme attempt to save a femininity that the monastic habit wants to deny.
After entering the scene, the nun’s behavior provides further clues: behind the grate she stared fixedly at Lucia, who was coming forward hesitantly, highlighting the strong contrast between the nun’s decisive manner and the shyness of the girl who, with the nuns, constitutes a mirror image, so many differences separate them.
In the dialogue with the guardian father, Gertrude’s ambiguous duplicity, diplomacy and morbid curiosity stand out as a woman thirsty for erotic adventures: the friar reminds her that her ears must be very pure, because she is a nun, and she blushes, but not out of modesty, but rather out of anger at not having been able to satisfy her curiosity, as the narrator suggests, or perhaps also out of shame at having been caught red-handed talking about a taboo subject, sex.
The third moment of Gertrude’s presentation is her biography, which occupies a large space, although more limited than in Fermo e Lucia, where it almost formed a novel within a novel. Alongside her, the construction of the figure of the father that the Catholic Manzoni outlines as a hero of evil, who acts against the law of nature and reason and who cannot be justified by his individual responsibilities.
The prince operates a diabolical and, at the same time, brilliant plan on his daughter. He imposes on her a name capable of arousing an idea of power already phonically, a reality that, like a mirror, must shape her personality, repress her amorous desires, all inspired by the stories of her companions who shape, in Gertrude’s mind, a deviant idea of love.
As the guardian father said of the nun, whoever knows how to take her by her side, makes her do what he wants: the nuns, executors of the prince’s will, know that her side is the feelings of guilt, because the girl’s education is based on them, and the ignorance in which she is kept, the lack of awareness of herself and her rights.
So they make her believe that the petition to the vicar is a pure formality and induce her to write it, first mistake; regretting it immediately after and intuiting the truth, Gertrude tries to convince her father with a letter, second mistake.
The prince, to punish her for having dared to ask for the right to a free choice, transforms his daughter’s stay at home into an anguished cloistered scene, which destroys her dreams, increases her feelings of guilt and also takes away the pride with which she had been educated, relegating her among the servants and ordering them to treat her coldly.
The only escape route is the one followed by all women, marriage. When he sees what the narrator calls a young boy and what the prince will later call a bad boy, he elevates him to the status of a page and superimposes on him the idea of the Prince Charming that he had dreamed of so much over the years, immersing himself in the fantasies of a romance novel.
The last scene of the chapter opens with the anguished expectation of punishment, described with Gertrude’s internal focus through her hearing. It is a characteristic of the novel, when a threat looms, it is often an approaching noise that announces it to the subject.
The punishment is terrible, because it also destroys Gertrude’s fantasies: the father plays cruelly with his daughter’s psyche, denying her any form of knowledge of the truth, taking possession of the typical means of the Jesuits, mystery and the presence of a jailer who constantly reminds Gertrude of her mistake and keeps her shame alive, leaving her alone in a cell without any occupation that can distract her from her obsessions.
The effect on the girl’s soul is exactly what the prince had foreseen and wanted: she feels disgusted not only by the world that her father has been able to show her, but also by her happy and brilliant fantasies of the past, which have caused her similar anguish.
All that remains for her is the monastery and the condition of a celebrated, respected and obeyed nun, with which she can satisfy her need to atone and obtain affection.
