Una Dona

Character Relations in Una Donna: 

The Parallel between Illness and Conflict

            In her work Una Donna, Sibilla Aleramo explores the influence that abuse and oppression had on her ultimate decision to abandon her son.  Woven intricately--yet certainly not mistakenly--between the autobiographical novel's withstanding relationships is the physical and metaphorical existence of illness.  Unfailingly, illness runs parallel to conflict in Alermo's work and an examination of this correlation would undoubtedly result in the magnification of Sibilla's relationship with other characters, ultimately revealing that her abandonment of her son was a break from this cycle.
          The first parallel--and arguably the most consistent throughout the novel--is the relationship between Sibilla and her mother.  In fact, Sibilla's struggle with illness almost mirrors her mother's.  Her mother's illness is a result of emotional neglect and abuse on the part of her husband.  The novel places all women in a similar frame, but the relationship between Sibilla and her mother is outlined with a strong sense of destiny--a destiny that severely frightens Sibilla.  At one of the novel's many peaks of conflict--Sibilla's distrust of her father--her mother's mental illness, too, is at a peak.  This pattern applies to others to whom Sibilla had a strong relationship.
            The theme of abandonment comes into play again when Sibilla prepares to leave Milan to go to Rome, essentially leaving the only person to whom she experiences real connection.  This scenario, which undoubtedly causes emotional distress to both parties, represents itself metaphorically as the Doctor's sickness and ultimately, his death.  This appears again when Sibilla's husband becomes sick upon leaving Rome to return to Milan--abandoning Sibilla's Norwegian friend--with whom he may have been in love.  In moments of abandonment--just as with moments of extreme abuse--the presence of illness as a metaphor seems to be at its highest.
            The final and most moving conflict in the novel is the author's realization that her struggle is irreversible and this realization comes as her Norwegian friend--who symbolizes hope and self-assertion within the feminist struggle--falls ill.  Her death is proceeded by Sibilla's migration back to Milan, where she struggles even more severely with depression and suicidal thoughts.  The conflict of loss, as seen with the death of the doctor, is represented metaphorically by illness and death.  It is this pattern that causes Sibilla to contemplate her own death versus the abandonment of her child as her final two options.
           It is this conflict--"What if mothers refused to deny their womanhood and gave their children instead an example of a life lived according to the needs of self-respect?"--that allows her to decide to leaver her son.  In leaving, she discovers that she would be doing a greater disservice to her son by "renouncing [her] own identity" (194).  Had she committed suicide, she would have been aligned with the destiny of her mother and her two closest friends, all of whom fell victim to the illness that paralleled conflict in the novel.  Sibilla realizes that choosing the abandonment of her child over suicide is the only way to break the cycle that previously controlled her life.  In this she finds liberation.