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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Monk, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Catholicism and Hypocrisy
The Folly of Pride
Morality
Appearance vs. Reality
Human Nature
Summary
Analysis
A massive crowd gathers at the Capuchin church in Madrid (“a city where superstition reigns”) to hear the preacher speak. People are there for all manner of reasons: some are true believers, but most are there for the entertainment.
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is a religious order within the Catholic Church. The narration’s patronizing description of Madrid—a city in the predominantly Catholic country of Spain—as “a city where superstition reigns” introduces the novel’s critique of Catholicism.
Themes
An older woman (Leonella) loudly exclaims about the heat in the crowded church, and two cavaliers take notice. One of the cavaliers, Lorenzo, looks in the woman’s direction and sees a young, veiled woman (Antonia) accompanying her. The young lady is slight and dressed all in white. Lorenzo tries to engage her in conversation, but she demurs. She also refuses to remove her veil, despite Lorenzo’s protests. Eventually the older woman convinces her, and the young woman removes her veil to reveal a beautiful pale face and long, fair hair. She looks to be about 15 years old. The older woman—the veiled woman’s aunt—explains that the young lady has had a sheltered upbringing in an old castle in Murcia. The lady’s mother, Elvira, has been her only companion.
A cavalier is a knight or soldier. Antonia’s white clothing and veil symbolize her virtue. In a novel full of characters whose external appearances contradict or conceal their inner characters, Antonia stands out as a woman whose outwardly virtuous appearance accurately reflects her inner morality. The fact of Antonia’s sheltered upbringing, though, calls the nature of Antonia’s goodness into question: does she behave virtuously because she is an inherently good person, or is she only virtuous because that’s how she’s been taught to act?
Themes
Leonella explains Elvira’s backstory: a young nobleman fell in love with and married her. The marriage was kept secret for three years. When the nobleman’s father, the old marquis, found out, he was furious and resolved to bring Elvira home—only to discover that the couple had fled to the Indies. To make matters worse, the nobleman’s father took away Elvira’s little boy, whom Elvira had had to leave behind when she and her husband fled. Elvira and her husband heard that the little boy had died only a few months later.
Elvira’s complicated backstory offers some insight into her choice to raise Antonia in such a sheltered environment: perhaps, having experienced firsthand the suffering and misery that can result from acting on one’s passions and desires, she wanted to ensure that Antonia was never tempted to act on such urges herself. The detail of Elvira’s abandoned little boy, meanwhile, builds tension: Elvira and her husband were told that the boy died, but they never confirmed the death themselves, leaving the boy’s true fate inconclusive.
Themes
Thirteen years go by, Leonella explains, and then Elvira’s husband dies. Elvira returns to Spain with nowhere to go and no money to her name. Antonia—Elvira and her husband’s second child, whom they had while they were in the Indies—is only an infant at this time. The old marquis, who later remarries, refuses to see his daughter-in-law or his granddaughter, but he agrees to put them up at an old castle in Murcia if she promises never to contact him again. Elvira accepts this arrangement, and she and Antonia have lived there until last month, when, following the old marquis’s death, his estate has refused to continue paying Elvira her pension. Now she has come to Madrid to petition the old marquis’s surviving son (Raymond) to renew the pension.
Elvira’s destitute, forlorn status following the death of her husband reinforces the dangers of acting on one’s passions, and it further explains her choice to raise Antonia in a sheltered environment, away from possible sources of temptation or moral corruption. Leonella’s story also establishes one of the main sources of conflict in the novel: Elvira’s quest to restore her standing with her in-laws in order to guarantee her and Antonia’s financial security.
Themes
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Lorenzo and his companion, Don Christoval, express their sympathies. Then Lorenzo asks Leonella what the old marquis’s name is. Leonella tells him it’s marquis de la Cisternas. Lorenzo, as it happens, knows the living marquis (Raymond) well, and he agrees to put in a good word on Antonia’s behalf. Antonia looks up at Lorenzo and thanks him silently with a shy, sweet smile.
Antonia’s shy smile at Lorenzo suggests that Elvira’s efforts to raise her daughter in a sheltered and virtuous environment haven’t extinguished Antonia’s natural, human urge to feel love and connection.
Themes
Leonella, addressing Don Christoval, asks why such a large crowd is assembled in the church today. Don Christoval explains that the abbot of the monastery, Ambrosio, delivers a sermon every Thursday. He’s immensely popular, though he’s only held the position of abbot for three weeks now. Everyone loves him: men give him gifts, and women will accept only him as their confessor. He’s known as “The Man of Holiness” around the city. Don Christoval explains that the Capuchins found the infant Ambrosio left at the abbey door. They were never able to identify his parents, and he has remained at the monastery ever since—in fact, until three weeks ago, he had never ventured beyond the abbey’s walls.
Ambrosio’s mysterious past builds intrigue: who were his parents, and why did they abandon him at the abbey? Notably, Ambrosio and Antonia have lived different but parallel existences: both characters were raised in sheltered environments and have grown up to be highly virtuous as a result. This leaves readers to wonder whether Ambrosio, like Antonia, would be so virtuous if he’d been exposed to other, less virtuous ways of being.
Themes
Don Christoval explains that Ambrosio’s preaching is “profound” and persuasive. People call him a saint. Antonia asks, “Does that make a saint?” Because, if so, then she is one, too. Leonella scolds her for asking such a foolish question. Just then, the crowd in the church begins to murmur, indicating the arrival of Ambrosio. Ambrosio has dark, “sparkling” eyes and is very handsome, and Antonia feels butterflies in her stomach when she looks at him. His presence captivates even Lorenzo, who forgets all about Antonia sitting beside him. Everyone feels terrified when Ambrosio speaks about the horrors of hell that await sinners, then they feel reassured and happy as he speaks of the glory of heaven, which awaits those “of an unsullied conscience.”
Antonia’s question—“Does that make a saint?”—introduces one of the novel’s central themes: the unreliability of appearances. Essentially, Antonia is asking whether having a saintly reputation necessarily makes someone saintly in actuality. While this scene shows that Ambrosio’s presence has an enchanting effect on churchgoers, there’s no way of knowing whether his religious devotion is genuine or merely a convincing act. Regardless, it's clear that Ambrosio holds churchgoers to a high moral standard, instilling the fear of hell in those who don’t have the “unsullied conscience” required to get into heaven.
Themes
When Ambrosio finishes his sermon, everyone is sad it’s over so soon. He drops his amber rosary on his way out, and all the congregants reach out eagerly to touch it. As Ambrosio exits the church, Antonia feels a tear roll down her cheek. Lorenzo notices this and asks her what she thought of the sermon. Antonia gushes at how deeply the sermon affected her. Lorenzo looks on her affectionately. He praises her youthful, naïve admiration—and mourns that her innocence will lose her as she becomes better acquainted with the world. Antonia can’t believe that Ambrosio would be capable of deceit or baseness, and Lorenzo allows that, perhaps, Ambrosio is the exception.
The congregants’ eagerness to touch Ambrosio’s dropped rosary adds to the novel’s critique of Catholicism, suggesting that Catholics are prone to idolatry (worshiping religious idols or icons in place of God). Lorenzo’s suggestion that Antonia will lose her innocence once she experiences the real world that exists beyond the confines of her sheltered existence points to the idea that abstract moral frameworks (like Christianity, which values virtuousness) are at odds with base human instinct. Antonia’s refusal to believe that Ambrosio could be capable of deceit underscores her innocence: though at this point there’s no reason to believe that Ambrosio is anything but the devout monk he appears to be, it’s naïve of Antonia to believe that he’s incapable of deceit or hypocrisy.
Themes
Antonia asks Leonella if Ambrosio can be their confessor, but Leonella refuses: she is not as taken with Ambrosio as Antonia. In fact, his talk of sinners and the devil horrified her, and she finds his “look of severity” disturbing. Don Christoval admits that Ambrosio’s “severity” is perhaps his one shortcoming. With this, Don Christoval offers to escort the women home, but Leonella, mistaking his offer for a romantic advance, feigns humility and refuses. She asks where the cavaliers may be reached (the Medina palace), and then she and Antonia go on their way.
Ambrosio’s “look of severity” reflects his harsh, unmerciful treatment of sinners—people who don’t live up to the high moral standard that he appears to embody. Don Christoval’s suggestion that Ambrosio’s “severity” is a flaw points to the ways that Ambrosio’s conduct is at odds with the religion he purports to represent: in fact, the New Testament of the Christian Bible emphasizes mercy and forgiveness.
Themes
Once alone, Don Christoval teases Lorenzo about Antonia, and Lorenzo admits that he is quite attracted to her. And his uncle, duke of Medina, has been bugging him to get married. Don Christoval suggests that he and Lorenzo go watch a comedy, but Lorenzo, who only arrived in Madrid last night, says he needs to see his sister (Agnes), who is in a convent, first. Don Christoval insinuates that Lorenzo forced Agnes to reside at the convent, but Lorenzo angrily insists that Agnes “took the veil by her own desire,” due to “particular circumstances.” Don Christoval leaves rather than escalate the argument further.
Agnes’s serving at a convent seems to be the source of conflict for Lorenzo, based on his angry response to Don Christoval’s insinuation that Lorenzo forced Agnes to become a nun. Lorenzo’s vague remark that Agnes “took the veil by her own desire” due to “particular circumstances” builds intrigue, indicating that there is some yet unrevealed event in Agnes’s past that compelled her into a life of religious service. At any rate, Lorenzo’s apparent displeasure at Agnes’s having become a nun contributes to the book’s generally negative attitude toward Catholicism.
Themes
Alone, Lorenzo takes in the calm stillness of the hour and thinks about Antonia and all that might stand in his way of marrying her. He falls asleep and dreams he sees Antonia standing at the gates to the monastery, dressed “in bridal white, and blushing with all the charms of virgin modesty.” Then the door to the abbey opens, and Ambrosio walks out. He asks where the bridegroom is. Antonia catches sight of Lorenzo and lunges toward him, blushing as she declares him her “destined bridegroom.”
Lorenzo’s dream, in which Antonia appears “in bridal white, and blushing with all the charms of virgin modesty,” reinforces how central her virtuousness is to Lorenzo’s attraction to her. This scene, in which Ambrosio is poised to officiate Lorenzo and Antonia’s hypothetical wedding, might foreshadow that Ambrosio will exert some control over the lovers’ fate.
Themes
But before the lovers can unite, a fearsome monster appears. It has the words “Pride! Lust! Inhumanity!” scrawled on its forehead. The monster seizes Antonia, drags her to the alter, and “torture[s] her with odious caresses.” Lorenzo tries to intervene, but a bang of thunder sounds, and the cathedral crumbles around them. A gulph appears in the ground, and the monster is dragged into it. The monster tries to drag Antonia down with him but fails, taking only her white robe. Antonia grows wings and ascends upward, calling down to Lorenzo that they “shall meet above!”
The monster’s entrance occurs almost simultaneously with Ambrosio’s appearance, perhaps suggesting that the monster is a stand-in for Ambrosio. This symbolism further suggests that Ambrosio will come between the two lovers in some way. It also raises the possibility that Ambrosio’s outward appearance of religious devotion is perhaps hiding more nefarious and sinful inner urges. Finally, Antonia’s apparent transformation into an angel reinforces her virtuousness, but it also seems to suggest that she may have a tragic fate in store for her—that she may die before she and Lorenzo can be together.
Themes
Lorenzo awakens just then and finds himself on the pavement of the church. As he gets up to head to Agnes’s convent, he spots a cloaked, suspicious looking man outside the church. Lorenzo watches as the man drops a letter beneath the statue of St. Francis outside the church. He feels relief, figuring the man is just delivering a love letter. The cloaked man hides behind a pillar.
This scene builds intrigue, leaving readers to wonder who the cloaked man is and whom he is trying to contact. If Lorenzo’s guess is correct and the man is delivering a love letter—presumably to a nun serving at the convent—it adds to the novel’s critique of Catholicism, suggesting that religious servants don’t necessarily adhere to the high moral standards they preach (nuns are supposed to remain celibate in order to dedicate themselves fully to religious service).
Themes
Don Christoval appears and greets Lorenzo, excitedly telling him that the prioress and her nuns are on their way to the church to confess to Ambrosio. The nuns arrive. As they pass by the statue of St.. Francis, one of them drops her rosary. When she bends down to pick it up, she discreetly also retrieves the cloaked man’s letter before continuing into the church. Lorenzo realizes the nun is Agnes and angrily rushes forward to confront the mystery man, who is still hidden behind the column. Just then, the man reveals himself and announces that he is Raymond de la Cisternas—Antonia’s uncle. He promises to explain, but not here. He invites Lorenzo back to his hotel, and Lorenzo obliges.
If Agnes and Raymond’s relationship is romantic in nature, the detail of them using the statue of St. Francis to facilitate their clandestine correspondence adds to the book’s critique of Catholicism—not only is Agnes, a nun, straying from her commitment to God by taking a lover, but she’s symbolically desecrating the likeness of a Catholic saint in the process.
Themes
Meanwhile, Antonia and Leonella are heading to Elvira’s lodgings after leaving the church. Leonella makes conversation with her niece, noting the attention Lorenzo paid Antonia. Just then, Antonia notices a tall, sun-burnt “Gipsy” woman on the street outside Elvira’s lodgings. The woman starts to sing a song about witches and sorcery, inviting maidens to come and hear their fortunes told. Antonia asks Leonella if the woman is “mad,” but Leonella replies that the woman is only “wicked.” She explains to her niece what “gipsys” are and declares that they all ought to be burned at the stake. Antonia nevertheless pleads to have her fortune told. Leonella reluctantly obliges, though she insists on having hers told first.
Antonia’s innocent question about whether the “Gipsy” woman is “mad” further demonstrates her sheltered upbringing: it seems that she hasn’t been exposed to any moral frameworks apart from the Catholicism with which she’s been raised. Leonella’s harsh declaration that the woman is “wicked” and out to be burned at the stake echoes Ambrosio’s severe treatment of sinners and reinforces the book’s critique of Catholics as hypocritical in that they hold harsh and overly judgmental views of so-called “sinners” that are at odds with the Christian Bible’s emphasis on mercy and forgiveness.
Themes
Leonella holds out her hand for the “gipsy” to read, and the “gipsy” humiliates her, declaring her already too old—at 51—to catch any lover’s eye. Antonia holds out her hand next, and the “gipsy” cautions Antonia that though she appears chaste on the outside, “fair” external appearances can sometimes conceal “Hearts that swell with lust and pride.” She predicts that evil will corrupt Antonia’s future. The “gipsy” finishes her song, and Antonia and Leonella enter Elvira’s lodgings. Both are affected by the gipsy’s predictions, but they forget all about them soon enough.
The “gipsy” woman’s warning that “fair” outward appearances can sometimes conceal inner “lust and pride” echoes Lorenzo’s nightmare, which seemed to suggest that Ambrosio’s saintly exterior is hiding a more nefarious, monstrous interior—to whose designs Antonia may unwittingly fall victim.
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