56 pages • 1 hour read
Ann RadcliffeA Sicilian Romance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1790A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Madame de Menon arrives at a village and takes a walk to enjoy the beautiful scenery. As she reflects on the beauty of Nature in all its striking forms, she hears a sweet voice raised in song. Madame is shocked to discover Julia disguised as a peasant girl, and both women are overcome with joy. Madame observes that the isolated nature of the location has allowed Julia to remain concealed and asks her to explain how she was able to escape.
Julia reveals that her servant, Caterina, was able to convince her lover Niccolo, another servant in the castle, to steal the keys from her jailer and to procure a ladder and ropes. Julia and Caterina used these to climb over the walls of the castle, and they hurried to the isolated village where Caterina was born to seek shelter with her parents. In thanks, Julia gave Niccolo a diamond that she had been meant to wear for her wedding to the duke.
Chapter 8 Summary
Julia continues the tale of her escape, explaining how she changed into peasant clothes and threw away her good dress. She claims that Caterina's mother greeted her with kindness but knew immediately that Julia was of superior rank, and so Julia moved to the remote cottage owned by Caterina's sister, but she is still fearful of being caught. Madame tells Julia about the duke's search for her and invites her to come with her to the monastery of St. Augustin, which Julia accepts.
They are on their journey the next day when they are apprehended, bound, and brought to a ruined mansion by a party of horsemen. A guard instructs them to await the arrival of their lord, whom Julia assumes is the duke. Fearing violence, she wishes for the first time that she had not left her father's house. When a man arrives many hours later, he is shocked and disappointed to find Julia and Madame, who are not the fugitives he has been seeking—the banditti he hired confused them for another young woman on the run. Released with his apologies, they continue their journey and reach the monastery.
Julia finds the peace of the monastery and conversation of the nuns soothing, and she becomes close friends with one in particular, though she continues to think often of Hippolitus. Meanwhile, Emilia, still imprisoned at Mazzini, suffers at the hands of the marchioness. The duke returns to the castle, and he and the marquis agree to suspend the search for Julia in the hopes of lulling her into revealing her whereabouts.
Chapter 9 Summary
The monastery is defined by Gothic architecture and gloomy battlements, and Julia finds respite but also sadness, as the atmosphere reminds her of a poem composed by Hippolitus. Also suffering from a secret sorrow is Julia's favorite nun, Cornelia, who is literally sick with grief. After Julia nurses her to health, they share their stories.
Cornelia, like Julia, lost her mother at a young age. Cornelia's father forbade her from marrying Angelo, the son of a neighboring family who was also of nobility but had little wealth. She attracted the attention of the Marquis Marinelli, and her father gave her a choice: marry the marquis or enter the convent. Cornelia's brother intervened on her behalf, but Angelo had meanwhile joined the service of the Neapolitan king and been killed in a military engagement. It is here revealed that Cornelia's generous and caring brother was Hippolitus. The connection binds the two young women tighter in their friendship.
Cornelia continues to explain that her continued adoration and longing for Angelo made her heart "a blemished offering to God" (106), a sin which she felt the need to confess. During her confession, Cornelia discovered that Angelo was living still and was the very monk to whom she was confessing. After their encounter, Angelo left the monastery, revealing in a letter that he had survived his wounds but found her already promised to God, so had devoted himself to monastic life in the hopes of being near her. After realizing that his nearness caused her more distress than good, he left.
Thus, Cornelia commiserates with Julia but believes that her escape from her father and the duke can have only one consequence.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
A shift in mood and tone is immediately apparent in these chapters as the setting changes from the gloomy claustrophobia of the castle to the bright freedom of the forest. Radcliffe’s descriptions of the countryside demonstrate Madame’s Romanticization of the Natural World, “and her thoughts involuntarily rose, ‘from Nature up to Nature’s God’” (91). This phrase, uttered just before the benevolent Madame discovers Julia, suggests a form of divine power at work. These chapters further connect Julia with goodness and light, someone for whom the appearance of the landscape “glowed with luxuriance” (96). Nature therefore reflects Julia’s experiences and offers a sublime moment for her to bask in beauty.
Julia’s explanation of her escape reinforces her rejection of patriarchal power in general and of her father and the duke in particular. This is illustrated by her rewarding a servant for his help by giving him a diamond meant for her wedding. Madame and Julia’s abduction and Cornelia’s backstory further represent The Oppression of Women in Patriarchal Society. When Madame and Julia are mistaken for “the fair fugitive whom the duke had before mistaken for Julia” (98), the kidnapping of innocent women by noblemen is unquestioned; that his offer of a guide back to the main road is “eagerly and thankfully accepted” further emphasizes that such acts are the norm (98). Cornelia’s story of lost love, closely mirroring that of Louisa, further emphasizes the extent to which women in the novel are prisoners of patriarchal power, which causes them misery and regret. The notable coincidence that Hippolitus was Cornelia’s kindly intervening brother, and also the object of Julia’s love, highlights his goodness and suggests there are few such men who do not exploit their power for nefarious purposes.
It is also in this chapter that Radcliffe presents her most didactic critique of religion and superstition, which she depicts as closely related. She draws attention to religion and superstition with vivid figurative language in Julia’s reflection that the windows of the monastery are “stained with the colouring of monkish fictions” (102). Radcliffe then anthropomorphizes superstition as a demon in Julia’s recollection of an ode composed by Hippolitus: “She bids them fly to shade earth’s brightest blooms,/ And spread the blast of Desolation wide” (102). Similar critiques are more subtly conveyed later in Chapter 9 when Cornelia considers her heart “a blemished offering to God” (106), but Julia sees only purity and truth in her character. Throughout these chapters, Radcliffe suggests that institutions like patriarchy and Catholicism lead to prejudice, while the “blooms” of divine nature exist in the human spirit.
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By Ann Radcliffe
