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Volume 4, Chapter 4
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
Emily tells Annette not to spread the story of what Emily saw with Dorothée, but news still spreads among the servants. New visitors come to the chateau: the Baron St. Foix (a friend of the Count De Villefort) and his son Chevalier St. Foix, an admirer of Blanche. The visitors help make it a lively and happy atmosphere at the chateau again. Still, Emily has a sense of melancholy she can’t get rid of.
Just as Blanche is a counterpart to Emily, Chevalier St. Foix seems to be a counterpart to Valancourt. Although the arrival of St. Foix and his son is a celebration, several questions linger over this chapter, including what Emily and Dorothée saw in the locked room.
Themes
One evening, Emily stays for a long time outside the chateau by the water, thinking of Valancourt. She composes a poem that personifies a late hour of the day, then watches the moon rise over the water. When Emily goes back into the chateau, she hears that rumors about the Marchioness De Villeroi’s old room has continued to grow. Dorothée says it seems like someone else has gotten into the room, even though Dorothée herself is the only one with a key.
While Emily remains frightened of what she saw in the Marchioness’s old room, as news about the mysterious room spreads among the servants, Emily also sees how false rumors and legends can get started. This novel comes well before the formal invention of the mystery novel, and yet it anticipates one of the genre’s most important tropes: the locked room mystery.
Themes
Eventually, the servants are so afraid that they threaten to leave their jobs. Ludovico at last volunteers to go investigate the room, taking a sword with him. Emily and Annette both worry for his safety.
Just as the appearance of soldiers around Udolpho signified danger, the sword the Ludovico prominently wields in this passage seems to suggest that things at the chateau could get dangerous in the coming days.
Themes
