Metamorphasis in The Iguana

Don Carlo Ludovico Aleardo di Grees begins his adventure in Anna Maria Ortese’s novel The Iguana on the mission to seek out new land for purchase for his mother, the countess, as well as to look for manuscripts for his publisher friend Boro Adelchi. Don Aleardo, nicknamed Daddo, does not have to search to far before stumbling upon the island of Ocaña an island not recorded on any recent maps and home to four bizzare inhabitants: an iguana named Estrellita, a poet named Don Ilario, and Don Ilario’s two half brothers: Felipe and Hipolito. On Ocaña fantastical happenings occur and the lines between the real and the unreal become blurry even to the narrator. The uncertainty allows for a transformation of each character. Daddo, originally entering Ocaña a sane man, spirals into madness and Don Illario, a man acursed with a maddening sickness transforms his persona to that of a peaceful family man. The two Avaredo-Guzman bothers, illiterate at the begging, become poets at the end. And lastly an iguana, percieved by daddo as young and innocent, is not only transformed in attitude but phisical being as well.