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.