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.
Literary Devices
Setting
When considering the novel’s societal setting in Sicily in the late 1500s, it is important to remember that Radcliffe wrote for an English readership in the late 1700s. By placing her characters at such a remove from her readers, she freed them to imagine elements of romance and danger that were distant from their everyday lives. By setting her novel so far into the past, readers could also look at the rigid social structures and savage passions as the concerns of another time and place from which their own society had progressed–despite the fact that aristocracy, patriarchy, and superstition also characterized Georgian England. In the novel’s setting, Italian aristocrats live a life of luxury, while everyone else is a servant, peasant, monk, or bandit. These inherent class structures are apparent throughout the novel.
The physical setting in the novel is an essential element of Gothic fiction and is highly characteristic of the genre: The ruined mansions, a seemingly haunted castle, dark woods, and mountains all represent darker aspects of the human psyche and help to develop a sense of dread and confusion. The Mazzini castle’s primary trait is isolation, and this reflects what Julia and Emilia have experienced growing up away from the bustle of Naples: “A melancholy stillness reigned through the halls, and the silence of the courts, which were shaded by high turrets, was for many hours together undisturbed by the sound of any foot-step” (5). The castle is a place of sadness and silence, which makes it all the more jarring when the characters begin hearing strange noises. The silence and isolation also emphasizes a transition in the novel’s development when the marquis arrives from Naples with a large and noisy entourage.
Direct Characterization
Direct characterization, an overt description of character traits, was a common literary tool for 18th century writers. Particularly in the early chapters of the novel, Radcliffe uses direct characterization to draw immediate parallels and contrasts. For example, Louisa is “a lady yet more distinguished for the sweetness of her manners and the gentleness of her disposition, than for her beauty” (3), while her daughter Julia “was of a more lively cast [....] and her mind exhibited symptoms of genius” (4). Radcliffe uses direct characterization to identify her heroes in these women and her villains in the marquis and Maria de Vellorno, who are “imperious” and “devoted to pleasure” (3), respectively.
Frame Story
Radcliffe uses a frame story as the story is actually being told by a traveler reading a manuscript about the castle and its inhabitants. She uses this device to emphasize themes and morals of her tale, as the narrator philosophizes about human nature and the value of reason over passion at the beginning and end and in cerebral interjections: “The near approach of pleasure frequently awakens the heart to emotions, which would fail to be excited by a more remote and abstracted observance” (13). This allows Radcliffe to convey the weight of events or attachments between characters. It also suggests that the tourist who has read the manuscript relates the tale as an “objective” observer, suggesting that the philosophical perspectives of the novel convey the objective truths.
Figurative Language
Metaphor, personification, and hyperbole feature throughout the novel to develop the setting and emphasize characterization. When the sight of Hippolitus with Julia “corroded [Maria’s] heart with jealous fury” (16), her corroded and decayed emotions represent evil forces. By contrast, when “the breath of [Julia’s] flute trembled, and Hippolitus entranced, forgot to play” (20), the breath of the flute suggests new life and demonstrates the power of love to cast a spell over Hippolitus.
As in the poems Radcliffe frequently includes, the lyric quality of her figurative phrases lend rhythm and tension to the text. Phrases like “buried in sleep” (34), “wild desolation” (35), “the valor of despair” (87), and “mansion of the murdered” heighten the characters’ own feelings of oppression and melancholy (147). They act as shorthand within her lengthy exposition and help readers visualize the darkness into which the characters descend while exploring the supernatural, while locked in dungeons, and while fleeing for their lives.
Juxtaposition
The strongest use of juxtaposition in the novel appears in the contrast of light and dark. Radcliffe connects many of the other ideas she juxtaposes to light and dark: virtue versus vice, Passion Versus Reason, strength versus weakness. Light represents possibility and goodness, while dark represents danger and evil. For example, when Julia and Hippolitus realize their love for one another, “she experienced one of those rare moments which illuminate life with a ray of bliss, by which the darkness of its general shade is contrasted” (20). This juxtaposition is most emphasized toward the end of the novel, when light represents light and darkness represents death. As Julia attempts to persuade her mother to leave the darkness of her cell, she cries, “Oh! let me lead you to light and life!” (158), presenting the most literal relation of light and hope.
Radcliffe also uses juxtaposition when presenting Madame de Menon as a foil to Maria de Vellorno, “whose virtues were a silent reproof to her vices” (65). By casting the two women as opposites, Radcliffe emphasizes the struggle for Julia’s future as a fight between good and evil, or the appearance of good and the appearance of evil. Virtue and vice are again juxtaposed during Julia’s time at the monastery to critique Catholicism: The Catholic Abate’s passions are his vice, while the quiet reason of Cornelia and Julia is presented as virtue. This connects with the juxtaposition of nature and civilization: Nature represents the virtues of innocence and wildness, while civilization represents corruption and dissolution. Through these juxtapositions, Radcliffe develops the themes of Passion Versus Reason and the Romanticization of the Natural World.
Juxtaposing strength and weakness also supports the novel’s presentation of The Oppression of Women in Patriarchal Society and reveals the gendered attitudes of Radcliffe’s time. When the marquis and Maria die, “[t]hese terrible events so deeply affected Emilia that she was confined to her bed [...] [,but] Ferdinand struggled against the shock with manly fortitude” (169). Throughout the novel, men hold the power while women work within and against it to strive for their own independence. Women like Julia and Emilia faint at the sight of blood, while men like Ferdinand and Hippolitus are twice resurrected from severe wounds.
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By Ann Radcliffe
