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
Montoni and Cavigni spend the night out gambling with friends, including Bertolini, Orsino, and Verezzi. The next day, Montoni invites these friends to eat with him in his home, all while ignoring Madame Montoni. Madame Montoni doesn’t like any of Montoni’s friends. Another guest at the table is Count Morano, who sits next to Emily and observes her throughout the meal. At one point, he pulls out his lute and dedicates a song to Emily.
Montoni’s gambling suggests not only that he has vices, but also that he can be careless and take chances. His neglect of Madame Montoni so early in the marriage suggests that Madame Montoni has not found the ideal husband she expected, showing once again the dangers of putting materialism first in a marriage.
Themes
After Count Morano has finished his song, Emily takes the lute and plays a popular song from France, which pleases everyone. More songs follow. After a while, Montoni starts to get bored. Eventually, everyone leaves by boat to go to St. Mark’s (the main public square in Venice). The whole time, Count Morano continues to pay compliments to Emily. At St. Mark’s, Count Morano invites Madame Montoni to have dinner at his casino (a hall for music and dancing, not necessarily gambling).
Montoni’s boredom with the music suggests once again how he fails to appreciate beauty around him. By contrast, Count Morano gives a better first impression, showing that he too can appreciate music. As the rest of the novel will explore, however, Count Morano might not be the gentleman he seems. Once again, Emily learns that life is more complicated outside of La Vallée.
Themes
At the impressive banquet in Count Morano’s casino, Emily senses that Count Morano believes he has already won her over, so now he is trying to win over Madame Montoni. He seems to succeed and invites them all to come to his box at the opera the following evening. When Emily leaves the casino, she is surprised to see the sun beginning to rise.
Count Morano begins to reveal his true character by attempting to impress Emily with lavish gifts, like seats in an opera box. This contrasts with the humbler Valancourt, who tried to impress Emily by performing works of charity to others.
Themes
Montoni comes home late in the morning, having lost a lot of money the previous evening. Madame Montoni remains distant toward her new husband. That evening, they all go out again to St. Mark’s, although Montoni once again has his own plans. Emily and the others go to Count Morano’s opera box, and Emily begins to think that all the wonders of Venice are nevertheless inferior to the natural world. She starts wishing she could get away from Count Morano.
Shortly into their marriage, Montoni and Madame Montoni have already fallen into a pattern of avoiding each other, showing once again the dangers of marrying for financial reasons only. Although Emily was impressed by Venice at first, her admiration quickly begins to lessen, highlighting how the novel portrays manmade structures as less interesting compared to nature.
Themes
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Weeks pass. Montoni receives a letter from Quesnel where Quesnel mentions a villa he recently inherited. Although Montoni never had any serious claim to the villa, he gets jealous. Emily notices with concern that Montoni has been acting coldly toward Madame Montoni ever since they arrived in Italy, seemingly disappointed that she wasn’t as wealthy as she seemed. It turns out Montoni has recently lost a lot of money after all, and that the rumors Valancourt heard are true.
Montoni shows that greed isn’t about wanting any specific thing but simply about wanting more—and being jealous of what others get. Both Montoni and Madame Montoni married with greedy intentions, only to realize that each was trying to trick the other by pretending to have more money. By contrast, attempting to court Emily seems to make Valancourt act more nobly, because that’s what Emily values in a partner.
Themes
Due to his money problems, Montoni begins planning to go to the castle di Udolpho, a place he owns but hasn’t visited in two years. Meanwhile, Count Morano becomes more and more vocal about his interest in Emily. Emily attempts to reject him in words so blunt that he won’t misinterpret them. Nevertheless, he continues to hang around, and both Montoni and Madame Montoni seem to want him to marry Emily.
Once again, the novel emphasizes Emily’s lack of agency as an unmarried woman in this time period, with Madame Montoni and Montoni picking a future for her. Emily continues to struggle with her desire to follow St. Aubert’s wishes, even as she increasingly begins to realize that her aunt might not have Emily’s best interests in mind.
Themes
Quesnel announces in a letter that he and his wife will be in Italy to see the new villa they inherited, and while he’s in the country, he’d like to see Montoni. Around the same time, Emily receives a letter from Valancourt, who says that he has been lingering in the places he last saw her but most soon leave to join his regiment again. He tells Emily that La Vallée is being rented out to tenants and that Quesnel made a surprise visit to fire Theresa. Reading these things make Emily cry, even as she’s glad to learn Valancourt is well.
Emily once again learns about how morality can be complicated: By listening to St. Aubert and obeying her aunt, she has neglected his other last request to take care of La Vallée. Emily’s concern about her servant Theresa shows that she has compassion, unlike Quesnel, Montoni, or Madame Montoni, who barely even register the presence of servants.
Themes
Emily goes to confront Montoni about what Quesnel is doing to La Vallée. Montoni was actually just in the process of writing him a letter. Emily manages to convince Montoni to let her write something in the letter about taking care of Theresa, but in exchange, she writes that she agrees to the other things Quesnel has done to La Vallée.
After marrying Madame Montoni, Montoni gains authority not only over Madame Montoni but also over Emily. This passage shows Emily’s own selflessness, as she makes a sacrifice of her beloved La Vallée to help Theresa.
Themes
The next day, Count Morano seems very happy and continues to pursue Emily, taking her in his boat and kissing her hand. Emily draws back her hand, with her annoyance at Count Morano turning into hatred. She learns that Montoni has promised her to him in marriage. Emily assures Count Morano that she has no intention of marrying him, but Count Morano says he has proof of Emily’s acceptance.
As Count Morano becomes increasingly aggressive, he reveals that he isn’t as sensitive as he first seemed to be. Meanwhile, the fact that Montoni tricks Emily into signing a marriage agreement shows again just how little authority Emily herself has as a young unmarried woman.
Themes
Emily realizes that she has been tricked, and the letter she signed that she thought was about consenting to Quesnel’s use of La Vallée was actually about agreeing to marry Count Morano. Count Morano himself gets angry at Montoni for misrepresenting Emily’s intentions. Emily explains what she thought she was really writing, and Montoni is incredulous—or at least pretends to be.
Montoni didn’t get what he wanted by marrying Madame Montoni, so now he turns his attention to Emily. His actions once again show how finances played a major role in marriage agreements. Emily’s willingness to sign Montoni’s papers, even knowing he was a potentially untrustworthy character, shows how trusting and innocent she herself is.
Themes
Emily goes back to her apartment, wondering whether Montoni was trying to deliberately trick her into a marriage. She brings her concerns to Madame Montoni, who disagrees and says that Montoni now has a right to force Emily to follow through with a marriage to Count Morano by any means necessary.
Although the narration generally sympathizes with Emily, it sometimes presents her ignorance in a humorous way, as it does here when she wonders whether Montoni deliberately tricked her (when in fact, it is obvious that Montoni pulled a deliberate trick on Emily).
Themes
Emily spends several days nervously contemplating what to do next. She writes a poem about the ruins of Troy. Montoni doesn’t mention the letter for several days. Finally, he casually mentions one day that he hopes Emily will stop pretending that she didn’t know she was consenting to marriage with Count Morano when she signed the letter. Emily remains steadfast.
Troy famously fell to the Trojan horse, a large wooden horse that appeared to be a gift but was full of Greek soldiers. Her poem about Troy has clear relevance to her current situation, since she believes that Montoni’s letter that he tricked her into signing was like a Trojan horse.
Themes
Later, Quesnel arrives at Montoni’s mansion in a barge. They begin to talk, with Quesnel boasting of his recent good fortune and commenting on Montoni’s recent losses. Emily doesn’t like Quesnel but listens attentively to anything he might say of France or perhaps even Valancourt, but she hears nothing about him. Montoni takes his guests to the garden, where Emily thinks about how the beauty of the natural landscape in the distance is more impressive than any manmade structure.
Like the city of Venice itself, Montoni’s garden represents an attempt to replicate or control the wonders of nature with something manmade. For Emily, these manmade things can never equal actual nature, reflecting her belief that the untamed natural world is God’s creation and deserves appreciation for that reason.
Themes
