57 pages • 1 hour read
Matthew LewisThe Monk: A Romance
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1796A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
After making love to Matilda, Ambrosio experiences shame and disgust. He bitterly blames Matilda for tempting him to sin. Ambrosio discovers, however, that his lust is too strong to resist, and he continues his affair with Matilda.
Having won Ambrosio, Matilda resolves not to die of the snake’s poison but to employ her knowledge of sorcery (gained from her uncle) to save her life. Ambrosio is stunned by Matilda’s transformation from the timid and obedient Rosario; she now appears determined, ruthless, and commanding. To perform her ceremony, Matilda enters the “subterraneous Vaults” of the underground crypt of the Convent of St. Clare. Ambrosio accompanies her, but Matilda forbids him from witnessing her magic; he waits above while Matilda descends into the crypt. An earthquake, thunder, and flashes of lightning terrify Ambrosio while Matilda performs her rites, but he keeps his promise. Matilda emerges from the crypt cured and euphoric, describing her sorcery as providing her with “joys inexpressible.”
Ambrosio and Matilda continue their secret affair, but Ambrosio grows increasingly disgusted with Matilda. One night, Antonia appears at the church when Ambrosio is hearing confessions, and she begs Ambrosio to visit her mother, who is gravely ill. Ambrosio becomes enamored of Antonia, admiring her beauty, innocence, and modesty. He agrees to visit Antonia’s mother, Elvira. Ambrosio comforts Elvira on her sick bed, earning Antonia’s gratitude.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
Ambrosio resolves to seduce Antonia; he realizes that his intention is sinful, but he no longer desires to restrain his passions. While Ambrosio is careful to protect his reputation as the most chaste and virtuous of monks, he privately allows himself to commit greater and greater sins.
Ambrosio continues to visit Elvira and Antonia. Elvira grows suspicious of his behavior toward her daughter. She wishes to warn Antonia of Ambrosio’s intentions, but she fears tainting Antonia’s innocence by alerting her to Ambrosio’s desires. Antonia remains oblivious to Ambrosio’s schemes; she is so sheltered that she cannot even recognize seduction. Finally, Ambrosio attempts to make love to Antonia, who—though frightened—does not understand his actions. Elvira interrupts Ambrosio’s attempt and banishes him from her home.
Furious, Ambrosio vows to possess Antonia regardless of the cost. He returns to the monastery, where Matilda says that while she knows Ambrosio no longer loves her, she will aid him in conquering Antonia. Matilda explains that her magic is far more powerful than Ambrosio knows; she confesses that in the vaults of St. Clare, she conjured a demon to act as her servant. These revelations horrify Ambrosio, who is far more reluctant to commit the “monstrous” sins of “witchcraft” and “Sorcery” than the venial sin of seduction (207). However, when Ambrosio spurns Matilda’s offers of assistance, she produces a magic “mirror of polished steel” that allows Ambrosio to observe Antonia from a distance (208). Ambrosio watches through the mirror as Antonia undresses and bathes. In a “phrenzy” of desire, he agrees to use Matilda’s sorcery.
That night, following Matilda, Ambrosio descends into the vaults of St. Clare. Matilda leaves and then reappears dressed in magnificent robes and jewels and carrying a golden wand. In an underground chamber, Matilda performs rites to summon a demon; Lucifer himself appears in the figure of a beautiful and elegant young man. Matilda convinces Lucifer to grant Ambrosio a magic myrtle branch that can open any locked door. However, she warns Ambrosio that she may not demand any more favors from the demon on his behalf and that if he attempts to summon Lucifer himself, he will not be able to control the devil. Ambrosio plans to use the myrtle branch to enter Antonia’s home.
Part 2, Chapters 3-4 Analysis
Ambrosio’s fall from virtue does not end with his succumbing to sexual temptation. Rather, The Monk depicts the violation of his vow of chastity as the first step in his descent, and it charts the progress of his further and (the novel suggests) far more serious crimes of hypocrisy and deception. Continuing its critique of Religion, Power, and Hypocrisy, the novel suggests that it is those who are most guilty who take the most trouble to appear virtuous:
[W]hat He wanted in purity of heart, He supplied by exterior sanctity. The better to cloak his transgression, He redoubled his pretensions to the semblance of virtue, and never appeared more devoted to Heaven as since He had broken through his engagements. Thus did he unconsciously add Hypocrisy to perjury and incontinence (174).
The novel reinforces Ambrosio’s fall from grace by presenting his literal descent into the depths of the Earth; it is only after Ambrosio has sinned with Matilda that he descends into the dark and horrifying underground tombs of the Convent of St. Clare, a symbolic descent into hell. Once again, the novel transforms a traditionally sacred space—a convent’s burial ground—into a site of sin and depravity. Matilda performs sorcery within the tombs to summon Satan and demand his assistance. With her act of demonic communion, Matilda’s character completes its transformation from the subservient “Rosario” to the powerfully commanding figure of a “Dangerous Woman.”
Just as Don Raymond was awestruck by the magician’s power in banishing the Bleeding Nun, Ambrosio is amazed by Matilda’s “wild” and beautiful appearance as a sorceress. In the novel’s exploration of Appearance Versus Reality, supernatural power often appears impressive and alluring. However, it is precisely this enchanting exterior, the novel warns, that should put Ambrosio on his guard. The novel makes its contention that “Vice is ever more dangerous when lurking behind the Mask of Virtue” crystal clear in its depiction of Satan (66), who arrives in the form of a beautiful young man: “It was a Youth seemingly scarce eighteen, the perfection of whose form and face was unrivalled” (213). Perhaps due to his own propensity for “unconscious” hypocrisy, Ambrosio once again fails to recognize that evil can assume the most alluring of forms.
In an instance of tragic irony, however, Ambrosio also finds Antonia’s innocence incredibly alluring. In the characters of the Bleeding Nun and Matilda, the novel portrays aggressive female sexuality as abhorrent. While Ambrosio initially desires Matilda, he soon finds her overt sexuality repulsive and fixates instead on the chaste Antonia. This shift in Ambrosio’s desires suggests a male fear of female sexuality and power expressed at other points in the novel; it also suggests that female purity (while desirable) offers women no defense against assault. The novel presents Elvira’s concern for Antonia’s purity as so exaggerated that Antonia is left in helpless ignorance of Ambrosio’s attentions. Elvira will not even allow her daughter to read the Bible, which she describes as “full of indecent expressions” (199). The novel’s treatment of Sexual Desire, Danger, and Deviance is therefore contradictory. It implies that society places too great a value on female chastity (elevating it even above religious devotion) yet still portrays the “voluptuous” and “intemperate” sexuality of Matilda with horror. It is this paradox of simultaneous desire and disgust that prevents Ambrosio from achieving lasting satisfaction even as he indulges his sexual appetites; the novel portrays Ambrosio’s affair with Matilda as an endless cycle of “appetite” followed by “disgust” (172). This frustration seems to motivate Ambrosio’s desire for the pure Antonia.
