Passion; The Beauty of Ugliness

Kendall Weinert

Masterpieces of Italian Literature

Passion Blog Post

The Beauty of Ugliness

I.U. Tarchetti demonstrates the difference between types of love in his novel, Passion. The novel is begun with a 28-year-old military officer, Giorgio, falling in love with a beautiful, robust 25-year-old woman named Clara.  Giorgio sends her notes through her balcony that state “I am unhappy, I am sick, I suffer.” (Tarchetti, 17.) Giorgio is showing that he is attracted to her and hoped that she will emerge to his room. Eventually Clara visits Giorgio and falls in love with him out of pity even though she is already married and has a child. Giorgio and Clara spend their days roaming around loving each other. They are even referred to as the “lovebirds” (Tarchetti, 23). Once Giorgio finds out he is being summed and has to return to duty he is heartbroken. He claims that he will always be “worth of [Clara]” (Tarchetti, 27.)  The love of Clara and Giorgio is a love of pity towards Giorgio.

After Giorgio is moved he is faced with an ugly, skeletal 25-year-old woman named Fosca.  Fosca is a young woman who is very sick with Hysteria and Giorgio never sees himself being around her let alone falling in adoration for her. Over time Giorgio starts to fall in love with Fosca out of pity. This second romance of his is the exact opposite of what his feelings with Clara were.  It is stated that “You must have compassion…loving, generous, sincere compassion which I have never found…” (Tarchetti, 55.) Giorgio is now falling for Fosca, someone who he pities because of her sickness and extreme ugliness just like Clara pitied Giorgio earlier on in the novel. Between Clara and Fosca, the love of being pitied and pitying someone else is demonstrated. Tarchetti demonstrates the idea of the beauty of ugliness in the essence that Clara pities Giorgio and Giorgio pities Fosca. 

Annalysse Mason

Tarchetti Response

9/29/13

Professor Seaman

In Tarchetti’s novel, Passion, suffering is a reoccurring theme. The main character Giorgio wins the love of a married woman after he explains to her how much he suffers in his life, “pity led to her love” (pg 19). A similar method of courtship is attempted by a diseased woman named Fosca. While both Giorgio and Fosca attempted to find love through the pity of their suffering, Giorgio is the only one is successful in finding love, even though he suffers less than Fosca.

                Giorgio, a military officer, believes that he suffers because he was “stricken by a grave heart ailment” (pg 10). He exploits the suffering he feels to win the love of Clara, a married woman that he meets during his two month leave from the force. Soon after meeting Clara, Giorgio, inclined to know if she pities him asks himself, “Did she comprehend that I was unfortunate? Did she feel the need to comfort me with her affection and compassion?” (pg 16). Giorgio is intoxicated by Clara’s presence, but he states that he was intoxicated “not with love, no; I still did not love, did not hope for it; rather, I was thirsty for comfort, sympathy, tears” (pg 17). Giorgio continues to seek Clara’s attention and he writes her a series of notes explaining his so-called suffering. In the days following one of his notes, Giorgio notices Clara’s door is open; he races in and flings himself to her knees. After she asks him to leave he says “No, I shall die here, I am suffering” (pg 19). This theatric attempt to gain Clara’s pity was successful, she eventually says “ I love you, I love you, but leave me”(pg 19).

                The reader is unaware to how miniscule and pathetic Giorgio’s “suffering” is until Fosca is introduced. After Giorgio’s two month leave has ended and he has returned to duty, the colonel invites Giorgio to stay in his house, insisting that his current residency at a hotel did not provide adequate meals. The colonel describes his cousin, Fosca, as an “illness personified, hysteria made woman, a living miracle of the nervous system, as one doctor who examined her recently put it” (pg 35). After overhearing one of Fosca’s nervous convulsions coming from her room one night, Giorgio questions how a “person who produced such a scream might yet be alive” (pg 38). Fosca is diseased and beyond recovery. Doctors at the house describe her body as being “so feeble that it lacks the strength to produce a fatal disease” (pg 39), explaining why she “might live till eighty”( pg 39).

Fosca explains her endless suffering to Giorgio soon after they have met for the first time. He misunderstands that because she is out of bed, she is recovering. Fosca responds by saying, “I think not. Infirmity is my normal state, as health is yours” (pg 43). Giorgio may believe that he is suffering but compared to Fosca’s constant illness, he is relatively healthy. Giorgio describes Fosca’s existence one night at dinner, “she appeared to be suffering intensely, she endeavoured to maintain a cheerful demeanor, her spirit was not superficial” (pg 47). Fosca also suffers because she is considered by all to be ugly, Giorgio concurs that “it was evident that her ugliness for the most part was the effect of the illness (pg 42).

There are a multitude of differences in the  levels of suffering that Giorgio and Fosca experience.  While Giorgio’s life has only been slightly affected by his ailing heart, Fosca’s life will never be the same because of her disease. Giorgio’s pity for himself is unfair, especially because he still has the audacity to pity himself after meeting Fosca who’s  “miseries must have been infinite” (pg 57). The reader feels more sympathetic for Fosca than they do Giorgio, it is only after they learn of her psychopathic quest to earn Giorgio’s love later in the novel, that their emotions change. 

Contrasting differences between Clara and Fosca

I.U Tarchetti’s novel, Passion, tells the story of a young military officer known as, Giorgio, and his two love affairs. The women that Giorgio falls for are not only complete opposites in their appearances, but in their personalities as well.

 Giorgio meets the first woman, Clara, in Milan. Clara is “tall, pure, robust, serene”(Tarchetti 20) and also married to another man with whom she has a son. Clara symbolizes youth to Giorgio, and heals him of his unhappiness. After two months of intoxicating love with Clara, Giorgio receives a letter stating that he has been reassigned to Parma. Leaving Clara is not easy for Giorgio he “felt struck by lightning”(24).

While in Parma, Giorgio meets his second lover, Fosca. Fosca is the cousin of his Colonel, and is ill with “every illness”(38). When Giorgio first meets her he does not know “how to express in words the woman’s horrendous ugliness”(41). As he spends more time away from Clara his memories of he begin to fade from his mind. As he starts to lose the image of Clara, images of Fosca begin to fill his mind. He finds a passion for Fosca that sickens his mind; sucking away the energy he had received from Clara.

Clara and Fosca are strikingly opposites on both the physical and mental level. Clara is described as blonde, beautiful and active, whereas Fosca is described as ugly, dark haired, ill and passive. The love between Clara and Giorgio is symbolized as a romantic love, with happiness bursting in every moment. However the love between Fosca and Giorgio is sickly and is connected to disease and death. How can Giorgio be so passionately attracted to both of these women when they are so different?

whoops

This is all i could manage before 9.

Pity in Passion

            In I.U. Tarchetti’s novel Passion, a paradox exists in that those who pity others are ultimately pitied. Two of the main characters, Giorgio and Clara, both love out of pity and compassion. However, in the end, they both end up drained, weak, and unhealthy. They sacrifice themselves to provide happiness for another. Pity is responsible for the fatigue and illness that enter the lives of Clara and Giorgio.

            Clara, the lover of Giorgio, gradually deteriorates from her original state of beautiful liveliness, as her love affair with Giorgio grows deeper. She is originally described as “tall, pure, robust, serene” and ”so manifestly strong” (Tarchetti 20; Tarchetti 23). She is attracted to Giorgio, who is struggling with a “deep depression” (Tarchetti 14). This depression evokes a motherly response from Clara, and “pity led her to love” (Tarchetti 19). Her desire to console and comfort Giorgio, an emotionally wounded man, takes precedence in her life. Her sole concern is providing for his happiness. In doing so, Giorgio regains his health and love for life. However, “(he) felt as if everything now added to (him) had been taken from her. She did not droop, but slowly wilted. She appeared transformed, not the woman she once was” (Tarchetti 21). Clara’s pity for Giorgio directs her actions to the point where she neglects herself. Initially, she is the one pitying Giorgio. In a paradoxical turn of events, Clara becomes weak, a shell of her former self. She assumes the role of the one to be pitied. Clara’s pity leads to compassion, inspiring sacrifice and selfless attention to Giorgio. Ultimately, her desire to be the source of someone else’s happiness causes her to forget her own needs. Pity is the reason she becomes depleted.

Giorgio, too, experiences the transition from the one pitying to the one pitied. Fosca, a woman with  “horrendous ugliness,” falls fatally in love with Giorgio (Tarchetti 41). Deformed and scarred by an unknown illness, she strives only for returned affection and tries to secure his love. Upon his rejection, she becomes deathly ill and cannot be cured unless she receives the attentions of Giorgio. Out of pity, he gives her these attentions, fulfilling her commands, as “the fear of killing her enabled (him) to undertake any sacrifice whatsoever” (Tarchetti 123). However, his constant attendance at her bedside and his efforts to improve her happiness drain his energy and cause him to fall ill. He states, “Twenty days after Fosca’s convalescence, I no longer had any health, courage, or hope of surviving my misfortune.” (125). Once again, pity has caused weariness and illness. Giorgio’s compassion for Fosca leads him to sacrifice his own needs to ensure her happiness. Initially, he pities Fosca, but, later, Fosca begins to pity Giorgio (Tarchetti 137). Consequently, pity is the cause of Giorgio’s descent into illness and discontent.

Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis

                                                  Freedom in Death

As Teresa predicts with her drawing of Five Springs Lake, it is freedom that Jacopo longs for--a freedom that he evidently experiences in Teresa's presence, and a freedom that he undoubtedly experienced in his youth.  But this freedom, like his homeland, is seized from beneath his feet and the remainder of the novel serves as an itinerant and  epistolary account of Jacopo's quest to rediscover his freedom.  Yet it is with the words of Calvino and Leopardi in the back of our minds that  we predict Jacopo's suicide before finishing the introduction…

            That is to say that true freedom is "such a precious thing...as those know who give up their lives for it" (132).      When Jacopo makes his decision to end his life, it is not without a dark and agonizing contemplation of the nature of human existence, to which he more or less comes up with the following: "Repentance in the past, boredom in the present, and fear in the future.  Such is human life" (Foscolo 114).  More than once, he finds pleasure in his memories of his youth, so that--just as Leopardi said, "Man is born rich in all, growing up he grows poorer…"--Foscolo seems to value the beauty in youth (Casale 59).  This explains the protagonist's love for the youthful Isabella, who bears a strong resemblance to Pearl in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.  I'll go as far as to say that Isabella represents the same truth that Pearl does and therefore we can assume that truth is also something that Jacopo hopes to find on his journey, but finds it only in Isabellea, Teresa, and eventually in death itself.

            Jacopo's search for freedom takes him through bouts of harsh criticism of the human race, and he eventually concludes that oppression--the lack of freedom that has become his life-- is caused by three things: Nature, society, and fate.  It is Nature who "transforms herself" and "blinds [Jacopo] with her light;" society who is composed of "oppressive creatures;" and fate who  puts Teresa in Odaurdo's hands (Foscolo 123, ix).  Jacopo is all at once unhappy because he has lost his youth, lost the love of his life, lost his homeland, and with all of this, he loses his faith in humanity.  The freedom that Jacopo seeks exists only in death.    
                                                              Works Cited
Casale, Ottavio M. "A Leopardi Reader."  Paperback. A LEOPARDI READER: Giacomo Leopardi, Ottavio M. Casale.  University of Illinois Press, 1981. 
Foscolo, Ugo. Last letters of Jacopo Ortis. London: Hesperus, 2002. Print. 

Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis

Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis

The course of this book can be predicted by looking at the title of the book. Basically, Jacopo Ortis is the main character in this book and he writes his “Last Letters” to Lorenzo, his closest friend, before he dies. Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis is a sad story of Jacopo, who lives in Venice but has to run away to Padua when Venice is being taken over during the revolutionary times. Jacopo feels like his life is very miserable and is not worth living. Jacopo is very emotional about life and confides in Lorenzo enough to write him bitter letters about all his emotional pains, beliefs and struggles about his personal thoughts on life and on the situation in Italy at that point in time. Jacopo hopes to be able to eventually return to Venice and that Italy will finally be at peace.

Jacopo’s frustration at life is halted after he meets Signor T*** who is also seeking refuge from the turmoil in Venice by running to Padua. He develops a relationship with Signor T*** and his family which grows over time. As this relationship develops, so do deeper feelings for Signor T***’s daughter, Teresa. Teresa returns his feelings and they share a kiss after which Teresa keeps her distance from Jacopo because she knows the opinion of the world is against the love she shares with Jacopo. Teresa is supposed to marry a wealthier and more prominent figure, Odoardo, who is of more acceptable social standards than Jacopo. Jacopo’s world is crushed again because Teresa was life to him. Before meeting Teresa, life had no meaning to him- Teresa gave his life a meaning so knowing that he would be living his life without Teresa meant he would be living a meaningless life thus he decided to die a “meaningful” death by stabbing his heart in the name of Teresa. This shows that both love and life have limits.

Last letters of Jacopo Ortis

            Jacopo Ortis’ letters to Lorenzo are full of classical elements. Foscolo hits the reader with deep emotion, from the beginning of Jacopo’s infatuation with Teresa and ending with his death. Other than triggering emotions, the book provokes thought about human nature and human existence. Ortis writes, “I suspect that Nature made our species just about the tiniest ineffectual link in her incomprehensible system” (Foscolo 31). Teenagers today believe that the world revolves around them but in fact the world is larger than they can picture. Compared to the rest of the world one teenager is “tiny” and Foscolo realizes its importance. People need to keep one another in check with reality. Teresa is out of his league and he knows it and it is human nature that drives him to write to her and reach out to her. Jacopo would be happier if he realize that she is unattainable and to end his pursuit of her.

            Another topic that Ortis writes on is human existence. He says existence is, “short, uncertain, [and] unhappy” (31). The whole book he is fed up with the world. Ortis is not getting what he wants, Teresa, and ends up killing himself because of this. His suicide is the only way he can find peace; he is on a search for the sublime. This is an important theme because death is the only option for Jacopo and this is a major problem today: suicide. All the stresses in life can all be eliminated by the sublime. The sublime is a state where you are perfectly at peace and although no one knows for sure; some believe death to be an entrance into the sublime. But the pursuit of life and living life to the fullest should be the real focus. We can reach the sublime by creating good memories. Ortis writes, “Let us treasure those dear and tender feelings which may reawaken in us, through all the years – years of sadness and persecution perhaps – which lie before us, the memory that we have not always lived in sorrow” (19). Through our imagination and memories we can capture portions of the sublime and not go through the terrible fate of Jacopo Ortis.

The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis

Death is often referenced throughout the novel, being attained through many different means. Early on in the work Jacopo’s despair centers around his self-inflicted exile from his home of Venice due to the Treaty of Campoformio in which Napoleon gave the Venetian Republic to Austria. Jacopo looks for many remedies in which to cope with the exile not only for himself but also his neighbors that he left behind. “There were many races once who, rather than obey the Romans, the world’s brigands, gave to the flames their homes, their wives, their children, and themselves, burying their sacred independence among the glorious ruins and ashes of their homeland,” (Foscolo 11). Jacopo’s desire to do the same with his community reflects Foscolo’s permittance of suicide in avoidance of suffering under an oppressive regime. Yet, later on in the novel, Foscolo refers to individual suicide as “cowardly,” (Foscolo 77), due to the selfishness it contains. But it has to be asked where the discrepancy lies between the two acts and why Foscolo views one as acceptable, even heroic and the other selfish and cowardly. It is possible the difference lays in the instance that personal suicide doesn’t rid of the burdens that inflicted the pain onto the victim as it only brings them upon the loved ones they leave behind. But the suicide of an entire race has a similar effect. The men are the ones who decide for their families their fate, and are applying their burdens onto their family to justify their shared death. Foscolo fails to recognize the similarities that both types of suicides share.

Foscolo likens love to nature throughout the novel. Jacopo finds himself free of his despair when in the presence of nature and/or Teresa. “After that kiss I feel divine… and it seems that the whole of Nature is mine,” (Foscolo 58). Foscolo goes as far to combine Teresa and Nature as one. Nature is Jacopo’s in the aftermath of Teresa expressing her love for him. But as Teresa’s guilt weighs her down in the aftermath of the kiss, Nature loses its lust and beauty. Before the kiss, Nature, which in winter is in a “dead sleep,” (Foscolo 62), held onto its beauty through Teresa’s radiance. Yet, in the peak of spring’s blossom when Jacopo has found his love for Teresa forbidden, the pleasure Nature had once brought him is gone and he goes on longing for death. The happiness Jacopo found in his love for Teresa was simultaneous with his recognition of the beauty of nature, even in its dimmest days of winter. To Jacopo Teresa is the goddess of nature.  Nature’s beauty is most radiant in her presence and in the time in which her love is still obtainable in Jacopo’s imagination. His love for Teresa is in turn immortal, leaving him longing for the day of his death after their mutual love is forbidden because he lived for her love and recognizes that his love for her will last beyond his last breath. A man is most aware and appreciative of his surroundings when he is draped in the pleasures of love.