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layangabiJust for kicks, I plan to post the mosters that ate my life...(yes, the essays that Imeant I had to disappear for weeks) ladies and gentlemen, here's the first one.
Vivaldi is a hero of sensibility, prone to flights of imagination and emotion. Moreover, in the course of the novel, he must encounter situations and assume attributes more often associated with the “feminine” (he must even wear a veil!), before he is able to enter a marriage of equals with Ellena. Discuss.
As a hero of sensibility, closely aligned with, and sympathetic to the feminine, it may seem strange that Vincentio di Vivaldi the hero in Anne Radcliffe’s The Italian, must be subjected to a “process of feminization” (Hendershot 48) before he can enter a “marriage of equals” with his beloved, Ellena di Rosalba. Forced to undergo trials normally endured by Gothic heroines, Vivaldi is incarcerated, placed at the mercy of a ruthless patriarchal power, and even forcibly veiled, literally and symbolically given the role and identity of the feminine (Hendershot 48). For Vivaldi, however, the feminization that he endures initiates maturation, forcing him to cast off his emotional and imaginative excesses: to confront and acknowledge the patriarchal atrocities of his society, and to recognize his own limits in the face of its institutional power. This growth, in turn, allows him to become worthy of Ellena, and her equal partner in marriage.
One would have good reason to question why a “process of feminization” is necessary for Vivaldi, before he and Ellena can enjoy their partnership of equals. Vivaldi’s attributes as a hero of sensibility, and his association with the feminine are apparent from the beginning of the novel. Sensibility, as it was considered in the 18th century, was a “distinctly feminine field of knowledge” (Ellis 24), pertaining to a high sense of morality, the aesthetic, and an attitude of benevolence: attributes which were largely regarded as feminine. Vivaldi’s sentiments upon meeting Ellena Rosalba indicate his own sensibility: he is attracted first by the “sweetness and fine expression of her voice…the sensibility of character that the modulation of her tones indicated” (Radcliffe 9). When he first sees her unveiled, he is attracted not so much to her physical beauty, as much as the personal qualities which it conveys: her features “expressed the tranquility of an elegant mind [and] her dark blue eyes sparkled with intelligence” (Radcliffe 10).
While Vivaldi’s appreciation of Ellena’s beauty might be viewed as an assertion of male dominance, the male valuing the feminine as an aesthetic object, his idealization of Ellena and his love for her actually subverts the dominance usually privileged to masculinity. As Cyndy Hendershot notes in The Animal Within: Masculinity and the Gothic, Radcliffe positions Vivaldi’s love for Ellena within the context courtly love, or fin amor; interestingly, as Claudia L. Johnson notes, a position noted and disdained by more than one figure of patriarchal authority within the novel: “…the Marchese rebukes his son for his ‘chivalric’ air, much as the abbot in San Stefano taunts Vivaldi for being a knight of chivalry when he refuses to consider worldly power as ‘the infallible test of justice’” (Johnson 125-126). This condescending disdain, perhaps, stems from his masculinity, and position of dominance within the patriarchal hierarchy being compromised by his “idealization of and intense focus on” (Hendershot 45) Ellena, a young woman without wealth or standing. In Vivaldi’s love for her, however, she is elevated to the position of divine feminine (ibid 45): as he listens to Ellena’s playing outside the Villa-Altieri: “[he] stood for a moment entranced, and scarcely daring to breathe, lest he should lose any of that meek and holy strain, which seemed to flow from a devotion most saintly” (Radcliffe 16). Further, when first confronted with Ellena’s divine presence, Vivaldi seems to lose his own powers of articulation, powers naturally associated with the male (Miles 31): “He was embarrassed by a respectful timidity, that mingled with his admiration, and which kept him silent notwithstanding his wish to speak” (Radcliffe 9). Hardly the controlling masculine male! Why then, must Vivaldi undergo a process of feminization before he can enjoy the “marriage of equals” with Ellena, the woman whose love he aspires for?
Despite Vivaldi’s sensibility, he also possesses character flaws which compromise this. Along with a “pride as noble and generous” as his father’s, he has inherited the “fiery passions” of his mother the Marchesa, and Vivaldi often allows himself to be governed by his emotions, exhibiting at times a brash impulsiveness and irrationality. After being warned by a mysterious monk of the death of Bianchi, Ellena’s guardian, Vivaldi confronts the monk Schedoni and blatantly accuses him: “I now think it is also too certain to whom I may attribute [my injuries]. The secret advisor, who steals into the bosoms of families, only to poison its repose, the informer---the base usurper of innocence, stand revealed to me in one person” (Radcliffe 61). Although Vivaldi’s suspicions are near the mark, all he accomplishes with this insult is to turn Schedoni’s wrath against him. “He regarded Vivaldi as a rash boy, who was swayed only by his passions [and] he suffered deep resentment for the evil in his character…and he exulted…in anticipating the moment which should avenge him for this past outrage” (Radcliffe 63). This leads to Schedoni plotting Vivaldi’s incarceration within the Inquisition, and Ellena’s attempted murder, the latter averted only by Schedoni’s mistaking her for his daughter.
Vivaldi, as noted by more than one character in the novel, is also given much to excesses of imagination and fancy, and on acting on these excesses unless tempered by others. In encountering the monk a second time with his friend Bonarmo, Vivaldi imagines him to be a rival he must vie with for Ellena’s affections: “‘He has assumed a disguise only the more effectually to impose upon my credulity, and to deter me from addressing Ellena. And shall I tamely lie in wait for his approach? Shall I lurk like a guilty assassin for this rival?’
“‘For Heaven’s sake!’ said Bonarmo, ‘moderate these transports[!]’”(ibid 25)
Too often, Vivaldi betrays this tendency to lose his grasp on reality, allowing his emotional and imaginative excesses to get the better of him. Further, as Vivaldi will later admit within the Inquisition, he has not deigned to acknowledge the harsh realities of the society in which he and Ellena exist. As Schedoni dryly notes: “what ardent imagination ever was contented to trust to plain reasoning, or to the evidence of the senses? It may not willingly confine itself to the dull truths of this earth…” (Radcliffe 458).
One may consider these faults to be flaws of a feminine character untempered by sensibility; and one may see their persistence in Vivaldi, despite his sensibility, due in part to his privileged and protected position within the patriarchal hierarchy. This is in sharp contrast to Ellena, who does not share in Vivaldi’s privileges, indeed, has had to work to support herself and her aunt, who possesses a calmer, more rational sensibility. Although Vivaldi may have the role of paternal protector: the partner with the wealth, and political power to protect the other, Ellena is often shown to be the stronger and more temperate, chiding and calming Vivaldi when he indulges in emotional excess: “Why will you persist in such self-inflictions?” she tells him, when he takes her calm explanations of her reluctance to marry as proof of her lack of affection, and launches into a despairing diatribe: “ …how can you suppose it possible, that I ever can become insensible of [your affection]; that I can ever forget the imminent danger you have voluntarily incurred for my release…?” (Radcliffe 179). Unlike Vivaldi, however, Ellena is sensible of the obstacles against them. Psychologically, Ellena is the more mature partner, and her sensibility superior to Vivaldi’s. The psychological suffering Vivaldi undergoes as a feminized prisoner of the Inquisition, allows Vivaldi to undergo change, and to meet Ellena as a matured partner who is truly equal to her.
What Vivaldi’s capture and internment within the Inquisition accomplishes, aside from subjecting Vivaldi to similar perils Ellena experienced in San Stefano, is to strip Vivaldi of the protection of his rank, and force him to confront the atrocities of his society. “Vivaldi had been no stranger to the existence of this tribunal; he had long understood the nature of the establishment, and had often received particular accounts of its customs and laws; but, though he had believed before, it was now only that conviction appeared to impress his understanding” (Radcliffe 230). Within the walls of the Inquisition, Vivaldi is forced to endure the cries of those suffering under torture, the threat of similar treatment directed towards himself, and fear for Ellena. Yet, when faced with these terrors, he comes to attain same restraint and calmness Ellena exhibited during her own imprisonment in San Stefano. “His passions, thus restrained, seemed to become virtues, and to display themselves in the energy of his courage and his fortitude. His soul became stern and vigorous in despair, and his manner and countenance assumed a calm dignity…” (ibid 230). Undergoing the “trial of fire” of the Inquisition, Vivaldi learns to master himself, and to attain the same level of sensibility possessed by Ellena.
What Vivaldi’s feminization achieves, his subjection to ordeals normally endured by female characters, is to allow Vivaldi to gain psychological maturity. Subjected to the atrocities of his own society, and forced to acknowledge the greater strength of the patriarchal institutions he and Ellena struggle against, he nevertheless attains a serene strength, and is able to maintain his own sensibility throughout his ordeal, affecting even the judges of the Inquisition. This in part, leads to his eventual exoneration, his release, and his reunion with Ellena, who he can now better serve as a matured partner, having gained a sensibility and strength of character to match her own.
Vivaldi is a hero of sensibility, prone to flights of imagination and emotion. Moreover, in the course of the novel, he must encounter situations and assume attributes more often associated with the “feminine” (he must even wear a veil!), before he is able to enter a marriage of equals with Ellena. Discuss.
As a hero of sensibility, closely aligned with, and sympathetic to the feminine, it may seem strange that Vincentio di Vivaldi the hero in Anne Radcliffe’s The Italian, must be subjected to a “process of feminization” (Hendershot 48) before he can enter a “marriage of equals” with his beloved, Ellena di Rosalba. Forced to undergo trials normally endured by Gothic heroines, Vivaldi is incarcerated, placed at the mercy of a ruthless patriarchal power, and even forcibly veiled, literally and symbolically given the role and identity of the feminine (Hendershot 48). For Vivaldi, however, the feminization that he endures initiates maturation, forcing him to cast off his emotional and imaginative excesses: to confront and acknowledge the patriarchal atrocities of his society, and to recognize his own limits in the face of its institutional power. This growth, in turn, allows him to become worthy of Ellena, and her equal partner in marriage.
One would have good reason to question why a “process of feminization” is necessary for Vivaldi, before he and Ellena can enjoy their partnership of equals. Vivaldi’s attributes as a hero of sensibility, and his association with the feminine are apparent from the beginning of the novel. Sensibility, as it was considered in the 18th century, was a “distinctly feminine field of knowledge” (Ellis 24), pertaining to a high sense of morality, the aesthetic, and an attitude of benevolence: attributes which were largely regarded as feminine. Vivaldi’s sentiments upon meeting Ellena Rosalba indicate his own sensibility: he is attracted first by the “sweetness and fine expression of her voice…the sensibility of character that the modulation of her tones indicated” (Radcliffe 9). When he first sees her unveiled, he is attracted not so much to her physical beauty, as much as the personal qualities which it conveys: her features “expressed the tranquility of an elegant mind [and] her dark blue eyes sparkled with intelligence” (Radcliffe 10).
While Vivaldi’s appreciation of Ellena’s beauty might be viewed as an assertion of male dominance, the male valuing the feminine as an aesthetic object, his idealization of Ellena and his love for her actually subverts the dominance usually privileged to masculinity. As Cyndy Hendershot notes in The Animal Within: Masculinity and the Gothic, Radcliffe positions Vivaldi’s love for Ellena within the context courtly love, or fin amor; interestingly, as Claudia L. Johnson notes, a position noted and disdained by more than one figure of patriarchal authority within the novel: “…the Marchese rebukes his son for his ‘chivalric’ air, much as the abbot in San Stefano taunts Vivaldi for being a knight of chivalry when he refuses to consider worldly power as ‘the infallible test of justice’” (Johnson 125-126). This condescending disdain, perhaps, stems from his masculinity, and position of dominance within the patriarchal hierarchy being compromised by his “idealization of and intense focus on” (Hendershot 45) Ellena, a young woman without wealth or standing. In Vivaldi’s love for her, however, she is elevated to the position of divine feminine (ibid 45): as he listens to Ellena’s playing outside the Villa-Altieri: “[he] stood for a moment entranced, and scarcely daring to breathe, lest he should lose any of that meek and holy strain, which seemed to flow from a devotion most saintly” (Radcliffe 16). Further, when first confronted with Ellena’s divine presence, Vivaldi seems to lose his own powers of articulation, powers naturally associated with the male (Miles 31): “He was embarrassed by a respectful timidity, that mingled with his admiration, and which kept him silent notwithstanding his wish to speak” (Radcliffe 9). Hardly the controlling masculine male! Why then, must Vivaldi undergo a process of feminization before he can enjoy the “marriage of equals” with Ellena, the woman whose love he aspires for?
Despite Vivaldi’s sensibility, he also possesses character flaws which compromise this. Along with a “pride as noble and generous” as his father’s, he has inherited the “fiery passions” of his mother the Marchesa, and Vivaldi often allows himself to be governed by his emotions, exhibiting at times a brash impulsiveness and irrationality. After being warned by a mysterious monk of the death of Bianchi, Ellena’s guardian, Vivaldi confronts the monk Schedoni and blatantly accuses him: “I now think it is also too certain to whom I may attribute [my injuries]. The secret advisor, who steals into the bosoms of families, only to poison its repose, the informer---the base usurper of innocence, stand revealed to me in one person” (Radcliffe 61). Although Vivaldi’s suspicions are near the mark, all he accomplishes with this insult is to turn Schedoni’s wrath against him. “He regarded Vivaldi as a rash boy, who was swayed only by his passions [and] he suffered deep resentment for the evil in his character…and he exulted…in anticipating the moment which should avenge him for this past outrage” (Radcliffe 63). This leads to Schedoni plotting Vivaldi’s incarceration within the Inquisition, and Ellena’s attempted murder, the latter averted only by Schedoni’s mistaking her for his daughter.
Vivaldi, as noted by more than one character in the novel, is also given much to excesses of imagination and fancy, and on acting on these excesses unless tempered by others. In encountering the monk a second time with his friend Bonarmo, Vivaldi imagines him to be a rival he must vie with for Ellena’s affections: “‘He has assumed a disguise only the more effectually to impose upon my credulity, and to deter me from addressing Ellena. And shall I tamely lie in wait for his approach? Shall I lurk like a guilty assassin for this rival?’
“‘For Heaven’s sake!’ said Bonarmo, ‘moderate these transports[!]’”(ibid 25)
Too often, Vivaldi betrays this tendency to lose his grasp on reality, allowing his emotional and imaginative excesses to get the better of him. Further, as Vivaldi will later admit within the Inquisition, he has not deigned to acknowledge the harsh realities of the society in which he and Ellena exist. As Schedoni dryly notes: “what ardent imagination ever was contented to trust to plain reasoning, or to the evidence of the senses? It may not willingly confine itself to the dull truths of this earth…” (Radcliffe 458).
One may consider these faults to be flaws of a feminine character untempered by sensibility; and one may see their persistence in Vivaldi, despite his sensibility, due in part to his privileged and protected position within the patriarchal hierarchy. This is in sharp contrast to Ellena, who does not share in Vivaldi’s privileges, indeed, has had to work to support herself and her aunt, who possesses a calmer, more rational sensibility. Although Vivaldi may have the role of paternal protector: the partner with the wealth, and political power to protect the other, Ellena is often shown to be the stronger and more temperate, chiding and calming Vivaldi when he indulges in emotional excess: “Why will you persist in such self-inflictions?” she tells him, when he takes her calm explanations of her reluctance to marry as proof of her lack of affection, and launches into a despairing diatribe: “ …how can you suppose it possible, that I ever can become insensible of [your affection]; that I can ever forget the imminent danger you have voluntarily incurred for my release…?” (Radcliffe 179). Unlike Vivaldi, however, Ellena is sensible of the obstacles against them. Psychologically, Ellena is the more mature partner, and her sensibility superior to Vivaldi’s. The psychological suffering Vivaldi undergoes as a feminized prisoner of the Inquisition, allows Vivaldi to undergo change, and to meet Ellena as a matured partner who is truly equal to her.
What Vivaldi’s capture and internment within the Inquisition accomplishes, aside from subjecting Vivaldi to similar perils Ellena experienced in San Stefano, is to strip Vivaldi of the protection of his rank, and force him to confront the atrocities of his society. “Vivaldi had been no stranger to the existence of this tribunal; he had long understood the nature of the establishment, and had often received particular accounts of its customs and laws; but, though he had believed before, it was now only that conviction appeared to impress his understanding” (Radcliffe 230). Within the walls of the Inquisition, Vivaldi is forced to endure the cries of those suffering under torture, the threat of similar treatment directed towards himself, and fear for Ellena. Yet, when faced with these terrors, he comes to attain same restraint and calmness Ellena exhibited during her own imprisonment in San Stefano. “His passions, thus restrained, seemed to become virtues, and to display themselves in the energy of his courage and his fortitude. His soul became stern and vigorous in despair, and his manner and countenance assumed a calm dignity…” (ibid 230). Undergoing the “trial of fire” of the Inquisition, Vivaldi learns to master himself, and to attain the same level of sensibility possessed by Ellena.
What Vivaldi’s feminization achieves, his subjection to ordeals normally endured by female characters, is to allow Vivaldi to gain psychological maturity. Subjected to the atrocities of his own society, and forced to acknowledge the greater strength of the patriarchal institutions he and Ellena struggle against, he nevertheless attains a serene strength, and is able to maintain his own sensibility throughout his ordeal, affecting even the judges of the Inquisition. This in part, leads to his eventual exoneration, his release, and his reunion with Ellena, who he can now better serve as a matured partner, having gained a sensibility and strength of character to match her own.
