The Monk: A Romance

The Monk criticizes powerful religious institutions as worldly and thus hypocritical. Although the time period in which the narrative takes place is unclear, Lewis specifically sets his novel in Madrid, Spain, where the Catholic Church historically played an influential role in both government and society. Lewis does not suggest that the religious authorities portrayed in The Monk are hypocritical because their religious beliefs are insincere; rather, he suggests that these authorities are hypocritical because they are far more concerned with maintaining their public power, influence, and fame than they are with leading a holy life. While monasteries and convents present themselves as places of retreat from a sinful secular world, The Monk emphasizes the ways in which these religious orders are deeply intertwined with the secular world—a common Protestant criticism of Catholicism given the Catholic Church’s wealth and perceived emphasis on materialism broadly (e.g., the use of religious icons).

The most striking example of this hypocrisy in the novel is the character of the Prioress of St. Clare. The head of the Convent of St. Clare, the prioress seeks social status and fame above all else, assiduously recruiting beautiful noblewomen to join her order: “She leaves no means untried to persuade young Women of rank to become members of her Community” (169). The prioress punishes Agnes so harshly not simply because she broke her vows of chastity but because Agnes encouraged other noblewomen to reject convent life. The Monk suggests that convents collaborate with noble families in imprisoning young women and that the power granted to the leaders of religious orders leads to religious institutions full of “the low jealousies, the petty intrigues, the servile court and gross flattery expected by the Superior” (305).

Although Ambrosio (the head of his monastic order) initially seems far less cruel than the prioress, he shares her concern with worldly fame and reputation. While the populace admires Ambrosio for his strict isolation from secular life, Ambrosio values his public reputation for saintliness more than his own soul: “[H]e shuddered at reflecting, that a trifling indiscretion on his part […] would overturn that fabric of reputation which it had cost him thirty years to erect, and render him the abhorrence of that People of whom He was then the Idol” (175).

The Monk suggests that when religious institutions and leaders are granted so much public reverence and social influence (the populace, after all, treats Ambrosio as an “Idol”—a loaded word that frames him as the object of inappropriate religious veneration), hypocrisy flourishes, as maintaining power depends on cultivating an appearance of “exterior sanctity” regardless of one’s real character. While The Monk is careful not to reject Christianity itself (for example, Matilda, who encourages Ambrosio to abandon his faith, is eventually revealed to be a demon), the novel suggests that power and fame inevitably corrupt religious leaders and institutions.

The Monk depicts a world in which characters constantly struggle to distinguish between appearance and reality. This difficulty reflects the novel’s concern with moral and religious hypocrisy. The narrative suggests that those who appear virtuous (such as Ambrosio and the prioress) may, in fact, be sinful. However, the novel goes even further, suggesting that evil is most likely to assume attractive forms. The novel implies that while we tend to imagine evil and sin in monstrous terms—as when Don Lorenzo dreams of a hideous “Monster” pursuing the beautiful Antonia—evil more often assumes a beautiful façade: “Vice is ever more dangerous when lurking behind the Mask of Virtue” (66). The beautiful Matilda turns out to be a demon sent by Satan to destroy Ambrosio, and Satan himself first appears before Ambrosio as “a Figure more beautiful, than Fancy’s pencil ever drew […] the perfection of whose form and face was unrivalled” (213).

In a world in which evil enchants and seduces, characters can hardly trust the evidence of their senses or even their own judgment. Don Raymond, for example, mistakes a robber who plans to murder him for a kindly host while dismissing his virtuous wife as a “madwoman.” Characters frequently assume disguises (Matilda as “Rosario,” Don Raymond as “Alphonso d’Alvarada,” Theodore as a beggar) and just as frequently fail to recognize one another; Don Raymond elopes with the ghost of the Bleeding Nun instead of with Agnes, and Don Lorenzo does not recognize the woman in the dungeon as his own sister. Most tragically, Ambrosio, Antonia, and Elvira all fail to recognize one another as family members. Ignorant of her child’s fate, Elvira has no idea that she is confronting her own son. The Monk portrays society as characterized by pervasive hypocrisy, deception, and secrecy; thus, a mood of confusion, uncertainty, and suspicion permeates the narrative.

The novel reinforces this atmosphere of deception and doubt in its descriptions of the “subterraneous” vaults beneath the Convent of St. Clare (209). More than a simple burial ground, these vaults and passageways suggest a dark reality lying just beneath the surface of society. These passages create a terrifying “Labyrinth” and “deep abyss” that characters must navigate in “total darkness.” The Monk inspires terror in its characters (and readers) by portraying a world in which appearance and reality no longer correspond to one another and individuals struggle to make sense of an unpredictable world.