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Chapter 4
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
Lorenzo acknowledges that Raymond was wrong to act on temptation but doesn’t blame him—Raymond and Agnes wouldn’t be the first to engage in premarital sex. He gives Raymond his full support, and he also informs him that Raymond no longer needs to worry about the baroness’s opposition to the relationship, since she died of a broken blood vessel several months ago. Raymond, in return, offers to help Lorenzo pursue Antonia.
Lorenzo allows that while Catholic morals condemn premarital sex, sexual abstinence goes against human nature. He thus subtly acknowledges the inability of abstract moral frameworks like religious doctrine to overpower natural urges. While moral frameworks can incentivize people to act a certain way, they can’t suppress human instinct entirely.
Themes
Raymond returns to his chamber and finds Theodore there writing poetry. He offers to give Theodore his feedback, and Theodore, embarrassed, eventually obliges. Raymond reads Theodore’s emotional poem about love and tells Theodore he enjoys it, though he cautions his page against pursuing the life of a writer if he wants to be happy. If he writes well, people will hate him out of jealousy for his talent; and if he writes badly, people will criticize him for his poor writing.
Raymond’s warning to Theodore highlights how greatly a person’s reputation can affect their life. In the hypothetical situation Raymond lays out, a writer is inevitably doomed to a life of unhappiness because the public will either envy him for his skill or criticize him for his lack thereof. Implicit in Raymond’s advice is the importance of not investing too much importance in one’s pride or reputation.
Themes
Back at Elvira’s living quarters, meanwhile, Elvira scolds her sister Leonella for telling a stranger all about her and Antonia’s past. When she notices that the mere mention of Lorenzo’s name causes Antonia to blush, Elvira, fearing for her daughter, forbids Leonella from seeing or contacting the cavaliers again. Leonella goes behind her sister’s back and writes to Lorenzo anyway.
Elvira protects Antonia’s virtue now using the same method she has used for Antonia’s entire life: she cuts off all sources of temptation, forbidding Leonella from contacting Lorenzo again so that Antonia doesn’t have the chance to realize, much less act on, her apparent desire for him.
Themes
Back at his hotel in Medina, Lorenzo reads Leonella’s letter, which tells of Elvira’s disapproval and gushes over her own attraction to Don Christoval. She tells Lorenzo where they are staying in town. When he finishes reading the letter, Lorenzo goes to look for Christoval. Unable to find his friend, he arrives at Elvira’s apartment alone—much to Leonella’s disappointment. Antonia is doing work around the house when he arrives. She blushes but doesn’t speak to him. Elvira greets him with a look of anger and disapproval. In order to ingratiate himself with her, he informs her that Raymond has agreed to convince his father’s widow to accept Elvira as family. This pleases Elvira, and she warms to him somewhat, though she forbids him from returning to her apartment.
Despite Elvira’s efforts to shield her daughter from temptation, she cannot stop others from acting on their own urges. Accordingly, the lovestruck Leonella disobeys Elvira and reaches out to Lorenzo, apparently in an effort to make Don Christoval aware of her feelings for him (all the while remaining oblivious to his total lack of interest in her). This ends up being not such a bad thing, however, as Lorenzo comes with the good news that he may be able to use his connection to Raymond to improve Elvira and Antonia’s standing with Elvira’s in-laws.
Themes
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After Lorenzo leaves, Antonia and Elvira sit in silence a while until Elvira confronts her daughter about Lorenzo. Elvira explains that it’s a bad idea for a common woman like Antonia to be with a noble like Lorenzo: unlike Lorenzo, Antonia has nobody to look out for her. She believes that Antonia is too young and naïve to understand the passion and affection she is currently feeling.
Elvira knows firsthand the consequences that arise from abandoning logic to act on one’s passions, and so she advises her daughter to maintain her virtue and suppress her apparent affection for Lorenzo.
Themes
Meanwhile, Lorenzo returns to Raymond to plan their rescue of Agnes. The friends take a coach to the convent and sneak in through the garden at the appointed hour. They wait until daybreak, but she does not arrive. Unbeknownst to Lorenzo and Raymond, the prioress has been keeping Agnes prisoner. When Lorenzo goes to the convent the following day to ask to see Agnes, the prioress lies and says that Agnes has fallen gravely ill and cannot see guests.
Once more, unexpected circumstances thwart Raymond’s efforts to rescue Agnes. The prioress’s dishonesty creates narrative tension through dramatic irony (the reader knows the truth about Agnes’s situation while Raymond and Lorenzo are left in the dark) and further highlights the unreliability of appearances.
Themes
Lorenzo returns to the convent each day, but every time, he’s told that Agnes is doing even worse. He becomes convinced that this is a lie, and so he writes to the cardinal duke of Lerma and receives a papal bull ordering the convent to release Agnes to his care the following day. Meanwhile, Elvira asks to speak with him. During their meeting, Elvira expresses her gratitude for Lorenzo’s help with the marquis (Raymond) but also asks that he not visit them so much—it’s clear that Antonia has feelings for Lorenzo, and Elvira needs to look out for her naïve daughter. Elvira’s health is poor, and she fears she won’t live long. She doesn’t want Antonia to be unprotected once she is gone. She will only approve of Lorenzo’s marrying Antonia, therefore, if the duke—Lorenzo’s uncle—approves of the union, too. Elvira is doubtful the duke will do so.
Readers know that Lorenzo’s suspicions are warranted: he is indeed being lied to about Agnes’s condition. Elvira, meanwhile, continues her quest to undermine Antonia’s natural feelings for Lorenzo by eliminating all possible opportunities for temptation, cutting off Antonia’s contact with Lorenzo before Antonia has the opportunity to act on or even consciously acknowledge her romantic feelings for Lorenzo. A papal bull is a public decree or edict issued by the pope to declare a viewpoint of the Catholic Church. Throughout history, papal bulls have been used to canonize new saints or excommunicate people from the Church.
Themes
Lorenzo tells Elvira about his ongoing predicament with Agnes and assures her that, as soon as that problem is resolved, he will set to work getting his family to approve of Antonia. Elvira expresses sympathy and worry for Agnes, having heard of how strict, superstitious, and cruel the prioress at St. Clare is: the woman will surely judge Agnes harshly for quitting the convent.
Elvira’s knowledge of the prioress’s reputation for cruelty doesn’t bode well for Agnes’s situation: the reader knows that the prioress is keeping Agnes prisoner, but the exact details of her condition remain unknown. The prioress, like Ambrosio, is another religious authority whose severity contradicts the biblical emphasis on mercy and forgiveness. These characters add to the book’s broader criticism of the Catholic Church, suggesting that Catholic authority figures hypocritically fail to embody the biblical values they purport to represent.
Themes
After leaving Elvira’s, Lorenzo heads to St. Clare. He approaches the prioress after the church service and confronts her about Agnes. Once more, the prioress lies about Agnes’s worsening condition. When Lorenzo tells her about the papal bull, the prioress responds with a shocking revelation: it will be impossible for her to follow the order, for Agnes died last Friday. Lorenzo refuses to accept this, and when he passes along the news to Raymond, Raymond, too, refuses to accept Agnes’s death.
Perhaps Agnes has died, and perhaps she has not. The reader knows that the prioress has been dishonest with Lorenzo about Agnes’s condition, but they also know that the prioress has a reputation for cruelty. Could it be that Agnes has died as a result of whatever cruel punishment the prioress has imposed on her? Tension mounts as the truth about Agnes’s fate remains unknown.
Themes
