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.
Giorgio and Clara's love was not out of pity. Clara was happy with Giorgio but eventually decided she could no longer deceive her husband and give up on their marriage so easily. Giorgio pretended to be sick so Clara would come visit him at first. No where in the novel does Clara actually say she is with Giorgio because of her pity toward him. The last time Giorgio visits Clara she is very sad because she knows of the decision she will have to make to leave Giorgio. Clara was crying and wanted to visit all of the places that were hers and Giorgio's one last time for the sake of remembering their time together. Giorgio even states that Clara looked unhappy. This relationship did not have pity like Fosca and Giorgio's. Clara truly loved Giorgio and under different circumstances they might have been together.
ReplyDeleteClara's love was out of pity, it was only the reason for the relationship to begin. It says on page 19, "It was indeed her pity that led her to love". Giorgio made Clara feel bad fro him and made her feel that pity which inspired her to comfort him. In no way can love be associated with pity as they are completely different.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Clara's love was out of pity, the first time that Clara tells Giorgio she loves him is right after he displays a longing for her pity. Giorgio and Clara's relationship is constructed on a foundation of pity. Pity was the reason Giorgio was brought into Clara's life and the pity she felt for him was the only reason I believe that their relationship even developed.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the lack of quotations, I left my book in the library the other day and I have yet to have found it.