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Volume 4, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
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.
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance
The Wonders of Nature
Mystery and Superstition
Mortality
The Value of Education and Art
Summary
Analysis
Meanwhile, at Udolpho, Montoni has been furious ever since Emily left. Still, he has to focus on other matters as he prepares his troops for yet another invasion. Count Morano has told the Senate that Montoni is harboring Orsino. Soldiers manage to seize Montoni and Orsino, taking them back to face the Senate.
Montoni unceremoniously faces the consequences of his actions in a few brief paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter. Montoni carelessly believed that he was invincible, and this led him to underestimate the power of new enemies like Count Morano.
Themes
Back in Languedoc, Emily continues to suffer, and despite his efforts, Count De Villefort can do nothing to help her. Dorothée comes to Emily and decides it’s finally time to tell the story of the Marchioness De Villeroi. It’s been 20 years since the Marchioness first came to the chateau as a new bride, when she was about Emily’s age. Dorothée sensed the Marchioness was not happy.
The mystery of the Marchioness De Villeroi has loomed over the story ever since Emily and St. Aubert passed her former chateau on their journey in the first volume. Emily’s decision to reject Valancourt, whether it was correct or not, took courage, and she seems to have proved herself finally ready to face one of the book’s central mysteries.
Themes
Dorothée noticed that, although the Marchioness De Villeroi continued to have many admirers even after she married, there was one chevalier in particular who visited often and whom the Marchioness seemed to favor even over her husband, the Marquis De Villeroi. This made the Marquis jealous. Emily about asks the chevalier’s name, but Dorothée refuses to say it. Just then, the mysterious music starts up, interrupting the story as Dorothée and Emily open the window to listen.
When Emily asks about the Marchioness’s secret lover, she is clearing thinking that it might be St. Aubert. She takes Dorothée’s refusal to give a name as proof that Dorothée is trying to protect Emily from the knowledge of what St. Aubert may have done in the past.
Themes
Dorothée continues the story, telling of how the Marchioness De Villeroi fell ill. The Marquis De Villeroi dismissed the seriousness of her condition, refusing to call a doctor until it was too late. After the examining the Marchioness, who was on the brink of death, the doctor asked several strange questions to Dorothée about the Marchioness’s condition, which included a strange blackness on her face. Dorothée says that after the Marchioness did eventually die, rumors started to spread. But she refuses to repeat them (implying that people thought the death was foul play).
Dorothée strongly suggests that the Marquis De Villeroi poisoned the Marchioness (due to the strange blackness on her face), but although even the doctor suspected something unusual, no one had enough evidence to prove it. Dorothée’s story shows again shows how men had more power in marriage, along with the potential to abuse it. The situation with the Marquis and Marchioness seems to parallel whatever happened with Montoni and Signora Laurentini.
Themes
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After his wife’s death, the Marquis De Villeroi left his Languedoc chateau in the care of Dorothée, going to the north of France, where he eventually died. Emily makes Dorothée promise to come back the following night to finish the story and to finally let her into the room of the Marchioness De Villeroi.
Although the Marquis De Villeroi seemingly got away with murderer, he never got to enjoy his success, showing how unjust actions can have consequences even if these consequences aren’t immediately obvious.
Themes
