Pina and Fosca

          Both Verga and Tarchetti tell stories involving unattractive female characters that have the ability to manipulate men. Manipulation is a powerful mechanism that Pina and Fosca use to get attention and make the men feel feeble.  In Verga’s The She-Wolf, Pina tempts Nanni into having a relationship with her despite the fact that her daughter Maricchia is married to him. Pina is unappealing, “as if always plagued by malaria,” and is given the name of the “she-wolf” by the people in town (Verga 3). Pina tempts many men and has a bad reputation since she never goes to church, tempts the women’s sons and husbands, and is never satisfied with what she has. Pina falls in love with Nanni, but he does not want her and instead wants her daughter. Pina accepts this offer and continues “into the fields to work with the men” (Verga 5). Pina’s work was uncharacteristic and defiant, while Maricchia stays “at home nursing the babies” like a common woman (Verga 5). Even though Nanni and Maricchia are married, Pina entices Nanni and he exclaims, “‘It’s the temptation of hell!’” (Verga 7).  Nanni feels so manipulated that he says he “would have liked to gouge his eyes out not to see those of the She-wolf, for whenever they peered into his, they made him lose his body and soul” (Verga 8). Simply looking at her makes him feel powerless.

Fosca in Tarchetti’s Passion also manipulates Giorgio by getting attention and going against the traditional standards of society. She is not naturally beautiful and Giorgio describes her “horrendous ugliness” (Tarchetti 41). Fosca is rebellious and her hysterical screams are unusual, yet get her attention. Nevertheless, Giorgio becomes enticed by Fosca, even though he loves Clara. After trying to avoid her for so long, he describes, “A fog obscured my intellect, and I lacked the strength to resist” (Tarchetti 190). Giorgio also comments on Fosca’s eyes, and he describes that, “all her life was concentrated in her eyes, which were jet black, large, veiled-eyes of a surprising beauty” (Tarchetti 42). Verga and Tarchetti both depict that the power of manipulation can lie within the women’s eyes. Despite Pina and Fosca being terribly ugly and socially unacceptable, they manage to manipulate Nanni and Giorgio by constantly tempting them.