Jacopo Ortis response

Annalysse Mason

First Year Seminar: Masterpieces of Italian Literature

Foscolo Response

9/15/13

                In Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, Ugo Foscolo writes the story of a man, Jacopo Ortis, who flees his homeland of Venice as it is being taken over. The story of Ortis is understood through a series of intimate letters that describe his sorrows, dreams, passions, and intentions whilst taking refuge in the countryside near Padua.  Jacopo’s reliable friend, Lorenzo, offers him solace and advice as he reads of his new life in the country. As Jacopo’s new life is beginning, he writes that “how often in despair of vengeance I feel like plunging a knife through my heart to pour out all my blood amid the last shrieks of my homeland,” but these feelings of shame are soon demolished when he meets Teresa, the daughter of Signor T***, another man taking refuge in the country from his homeland.

                Teresa brings so much happiness and pleasure to Jacopo that he forgets his depressing reality. Awe-stricken by Teresa’s angelic beauty he states, “Is the sight of beauty enough to lay to rest all the sufferings of us sad mortals?” Teresa’s presence is enlightening to Jacopo, and she instills such a sense of exuberance in him that he forgets about the homeland he has been mourning. Jacopo has a great deal of hope in his newfound happiness; he has fallen in love with Teresa and because his life now includes her, he longs to live instead of hoping to die.

Amid the joyfulness of forgotten sufferings, Jacopo learns that his love for Teresa is unconventional. In the eyes of society, Jacopo would not make a suitable husband for Teresa and he later discovers that she is arranged to be married to Oduardo, an established man with nobility. This makes Jacopo’s love for Teresa all the more coveted and when Oduardo suspects dishonorable intentions in Jacopo, their meetings must be kept secret. His impossible love for Teresa does not dwindle when he becomes frustrated that Teresa won’t make up her mind, but rather intensifies. After a time of being away from Teresa, Jacopo describes himself in her presence, “ I would not have dared to breathe the air around her, and all my thoughts were only of worshipping her in reverence and awe.”

As the book progresses it becomes all the more evident that Jacopo’s life has completely changed because of Teresa. A man that once hoped for death every day, he writes, “ I live for her alone. And when this new sweet dream of mine ends too, I shall be glad to let the curtain fall on my life.”  Jacopo only wants to die, and will accept his death, after his dream of being with Teresa has ended. He writes, “When I am near her I am so full of life that I scarcely feel I am alive. Just as when I awaken after a peaceful sleep, if the rays of the sun shine onto my eyes, I am dazzled and cannot see for the torrent of life.”

Jacopo has such a dependency on Teresa that it is clear he will not be happy without her, his life will end when their time together comes to a close. They share a kiss together, and this moment is the highest moment of happiness, and sadness in Jacopo’s life. Teresa distances herself from Jacopo more and more after this kiss and it is only predictable that Jacopo takes his own life at the end of the book, shortly after he visited his mother for the last time.