The Monk: A Romance

The Monk follows two parallel narratives that intersect at key points. The first details the temptation and fall of a proud man, the celebrated monk Ambrosio. The novel immediately suggests that Ambrosio’s pretensions to perfect virtue render him a likely target of forces of temptation and “Seduction”; for a man to exist without any marks upon his character, the narrative suggests, is an unnatural state that must inevitably give way to corruption. This early suggestion that the idolized Ambrosio will fall is affirmed by Don Lorenzo’s dream, which foreshadows the events of the novel: Ambrosio (represented in the dream as “the Monster”) will destroy the innocent Antonia and find himself condemned to “the Gulph” of hell. This narrative strand of Ambrosio’s fall concerns itself primarily with Human Frailty in the Face of Temptation and with critiquing religious hypocrisy. The opening scene of the novel asserts that little true religious faith is to be found in the congregation of the church: “[I]n a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt” (8). Accordingly, Ambrosio himself is revealed to be as hypocritical as his congregation; although sexually pure, Ambrosio is consumed by pride, vanity, and “visions of aggrandizement,” firmly believing himself “superior to the rest of his fellow-Creatures” (32).

However, it is through sexual temptation that Ambrosio’s fall begins, establishing the theme of Sexual Desire, Danger, and Deviance. The narrative suggests that Ambrosio’s faith serves as a cover for his much baser physical desires; for example, the narrative portrays Ambrosio’s adoration of the icon of the Virgin Mary as motivated not by religious feeling but by simple lust. Similarly, Rosario/Matilda first tells Ambrosio that she follows him out of religious devotion only to later confess, “I lust for the enjoyment of your person” (70). The novel suggests that religious sentiments serve as a convenient cover for a reality of sin and sexual desire. In an allusion to the story of humanity’s fall in the Garden of Eden, Ambrosio succumbs to Matilda’s temptation after being bitten by a snake.

The novel’s second narrative strand concerns the romances of Don Lorenzo and Don Raymond, two Spanish noblemen. This narrative explores issues related to class differences, gender, and (as in the narrative of Ambrosio’s fall) sexuality. Antonia’s history introduces the problem of marriages that violate society’s traditional class divisions; Antonia’s “commoner” mother was cruelly treated and even lost her son (later revealed to be Ambrosio) as a result of her presumption in marrying a nobleman. The problem of tyrannical and cruel relatives emerges here, and it reoccurs many times throughout the narrative, establishing a world in which the social ambitions of one’s parents sharply constrain one’s desires. Don Lorenzo treats class differences as though they are unimportant, but the narrative suggests that violations of class divisions typically produce disastrous results.

Rather than focusing on social class, Don Lorenzo instead seems to judge women by their beauty and sexual purity; Antonia seems to him an appropriate candidate for a wife because of her extreme modesty and chastity. For women, the novel suggests, sexual purity can overcome other social disadvantages. However, the novel’s portrayal of female sexuality is complex. The novel presents the reader with a sliding-scale of female purity. At one end lies Antonia, a young girl so innocent that she cannot even tell the difference between men and women. At the other extreme lies Matilda, a woman who actively expresses sexual desire and commands Ambrosio to satisfy her. Neither of these women, the narrative suggests, represents a viable feminine ideal. The narrative clearly condemns Matilda as a temptress, and her cross-dressing as Rosario implies that she violates the norms of femininity in her pursuit of pleasure. At the same, Antonia is so hyperbolically innocent that she easily falls prey to the desires of others, as when Don Lorenzo removes her veil in church. In between these two extremes lies Agnes, who seems to embody an appropriately chaste yet intelligent femininity. The revelation of Agnes’s pregnancy by Don Raymond, however, condemns Agnes to imprisonment and suffering; here, the novel suggests that religious institutions harshly suppress what might otherwise constitute normal sexual behavior. Sexual desire and morality remain pressing and unresolved problems throughout The Monk.