Challenging Social Conventions in Passion

In many of the works we’ve read thus far this year a major theme is the violation of normal and respectable behavior. In Foscolo’s The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis there is an adulterous affair between Jacopo and Teresa similar to the affair between Clara and Giorgio. Teresa, an engaged woman, suffers the infatuation of a man who has given up hope for his life and future. Eventually she falls for Jacopo but this is seen a good thing although the social norm argues otherwise. The affair between Giorgio and Clara begins in a comparable fashion. Giorgio enters Milan depressed, distraught and with a “thirst for comfort” not necessarily love at this time, but sympathy, and out of pity Clara starts to spend time with him (17). Clara is an example of stereotypical femininity of the mid 19^th century; she is “affectionate” and “robust” (20). At that time adultery was a grave matter, but the book makes it feel lighter and less bad. This insinuates gender equality and giving women the ability to choose someone they love regardless of social expectations. Fosca, comparably, is ugly and sickly; her character confronts the predominant ideal of beauty. She is not confronted with adultery, but attacks moral expectations through her brash behavior. Because Tarchetti uses these characters in this way, his novel Passion challenges the codes of respectable behavior, especially the behavior of women.