The Mysteries of Udolpho

The Mysteries of Udolpho

by

Ann Radcliffe

Themes and Colors
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance Theme Icon
The Wonders of Nature Theme Icon
Mystery and Superstition Theme Icon
Mortality Theme Icon
The Value of Education and Art Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysteries of Udolpho, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mortality Theme Icon

Death hangs over The Mysteries of Udolpho, as Emily has to face her parents’ deaths (St. Aubert and Madame St. Aubert) and her aunt (Madame Cheron). Perhaps the most visible symbol of mortality in the novel is an old wax statue of a decaying corpse, covered by a black veil of silk (which recalls mourning clothes). The statue was initially a way for the original members of the Udolpho family to remember their own mortality, but future relatives covered the statue with the veil, suggesting that they chose to ignore their mortality. The novel suggests that forgetting that one is mortal ends up having disastrous consequences, as it does for Montoni: he casually kills others but ignores his own mortality, particularly when he agrees to harbor the wanted criminal Orsini in his castle. This leads to both of their early deaths.

By contrast, Emily looks right under the veil at the wax statue of the corpse. Although the wax corpse greatly disturbs her, even causing her to faint, Emily demonstrates that she is willing to face her own mortality. Emily may fear death during moments of danger, but partly due to her Christian faith and partly due to the example her parents set (they each accepted death calmly when the moment came), Emily seems to have made peace with being mortal. Other characters, like the humble old man La Voisin and the brave Ludovico, similarly take consolation from death by accepting its inevitability. The gloomy settings of Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, combined with the many deaths in the book, all help to underscore that dying is inevitable. But as Emily’s experience with the wax corpse suggests, facing mortality instead of ignoring it can help a person better accept their situation.

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The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Mortality appears in each chapter of The Mysteries of Udolpho. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Mortality Quotes in The Mysteries of Udolpho

Below you will find the important quotes in The Mysteries of Udolpho related to the theme of Mortality.
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

“Above all, my dear Emily,” said he, “do not indulge in the pride of fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality, which is continually extracting the excess of misery, or delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.”

Related Characters: St. Aubert (speaker), Emily St. Aubert
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

Passing the light hastily over several other pictures, she came to one concealed by a veil of black silk. The singularity of the circumstance struck her, and she stopped before it, wishing to remove the veil, and examine what could thus carefully be concealed, but somewhat wanting courage.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Montoni, Annette
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room. She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but instantly let it fall—perceiving that what it had concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on the floor.

When she recovered her recollection, the remembrance of what she had seen had nearly deprived her of it a second time. She had scarcely strength to remove from the room, and regain her own; and, when arrived there, wanted courage to remain alone.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Signora Laurentini/Agnes
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 9 Quotes

“You know not what you advise,” said her aunt. “Do you understand, that these estates will descend to you at my death, if I persist in a refusal?”

Related Characters: Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, Montoni
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

It seemed to conceal a recess of the chamber; she wished, yet dreaded, to lift it, and to discover what it veiled: twice she was withheld by a recollection of the terrible spectacle her daring hand had formerly unveiled in an apartment of the castle, till, suddenly conjecturing, that it concealed the body of her murdered aunt, she seized it, in a fit of desperation, and drew it aside. Beyond, appeared a corpse, stretched on a kind of low couch, which was crimsoned with human blood, as was the floor beneath. The features, deformed by death, were ghastly and horrible, and more than one livid wound appeared in the face. Emily, bending over the body, gazed, for a moment, with an eager, frenzied eye; but, in the next, the lamp dropped from her hand, and she fell senseless at the foot of the couch.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni, Montoni, Barnardine
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 348
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

“Do you indeed live,” said Emily, at length, “or is this but a terrible apparition?” She received no answer, and again she snatched up the hand. “This is substance,” she exclaimed, “but it is cold—cold as marble!” She let it fall. “O, if you really live, speak!” said Emily, in a voice of desperation, “that I may not lose my senses—say you know me!”

“I do live,” replied Madame Montoni, “but—I feel that I am about to die.”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Madame Cheron/Madame Montoni (speaker), St. Aubert, Montoni
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 6 Quotes

“The gentleman fired again, but he was soon made to alight, and it was as he turned to call his people, that he was struck. It was the most dexterous feat you ever saw—he was struck in the back with three stillettos at once. He fell, and was dispatched in a minute; but the lady escaped, for the servants had heard the firing, and came up before she could be taken care of.

‘Bertrand,’ said the Signor, when his men returned—”

“Bertrand!” exclaimed Emily, pale with horror, on whom not a syllable of this narrative had been lost.

“Bertrand, did I say?” rejoined the man, with some confusion—“No, Giovanni. But I have forgot where I was;—‘Bertrand,’ said the Signor—”

“Bertrand, again!” said Emily, in a faltering voice, “Why do you repeat that name?”

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert (speaker), Bertrand and Ugo (speaker), Montoni, Orsino
Page Number: 405
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 7 Quotes

It appeared, that Ludovico must have quitted these rooms by some concealed passage, for the Count could not believe, that any supernatural means had occasioned this event, yet, if there was any such passage, it seemed inexplicable why he should retreat through it, and it was equally surprising, that not even the smallest vestige should appear, by which his progress could be traced. In the rooms everything remained as much in order as if he had just walked out by the common way.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Ludovico, Marchioness De Villeroi, Count De Villefort, Dorothée
Page Number: 562
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 16 Quotes

“Sister! beware of the first indulgence of the passions; beware of the first! Their course, if not checked then, is rapid—their force is uncontrollable—they lead us we know not whither—they lead us perhaps to the commission of crimes, for which whole years of prayer and penitence cannot atone!—Such may be the force of even a single passion, that it overcomes every other, and sears up every other approach to the heart. Possessing us like a fiend, it leads us on to the acts of a fiend, making us insensible to pity and to conscience.”

Related Characters: Signora Laurentini/Agnes (speaker), Emily St. Aubert, St. Aubert, Marchioness De Villeroi, Marquis De Villeroi
Page Number: 646
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 17 Quotes

It may be remembered, that, in a chamber of Udolpho, hung a black veil, whose singular situation had excited Emily’s curiosity, [...] on lifting it, there appeared, [...] a human figure of ghastly paleness[...]. What added to the horror of the spectacle, was, that the face appeared partly decayed and disfigured by worms, which were visible on the features and hands. On such an object, it will be readily believed, that no person could endure to look twice. Emily, it may be recollected, had, after the first glance, let the veil drop, and her terror had prevented her from ever after provoking a renewal of such suffering, as she had then experienced. Had she dared to look again, her delusion and her fears would have vanished together, and she would have perceived, that the figure before her was not human, but formed of wax.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Montoni
Related Symbols: Black Veil
Page Number: 662
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Chapter 19 Quotes

And, if the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it—the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

Related Characters: Emily St. Aubert, Valancourt
Page Number: 672
Explanation and Analysis: