Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Brilliant Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Female Friendship
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence
Women’s Work
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice
The Uses of Community
Love, Sex, and Strategy
Summary
Analysis
Every time Lenù sees Lila over the next several days, she has a new bruise from Rino. Lila seems “resigned” to the treatment. One day, Lila tells her about taking a walk to the shop with Rino. Once there, he points out that if they can get Marcello to like and buy the shoes, their father will let them start making more and selling them. The Solaras, he assures her, will market the shoes and make sure they sell well. Lila insists on bringing the plan to Fernando. That night at dinner, they tell him—he agrees to put the shoes in the shop. If Marcello wants to buy them, he’ll let Rino and Lila keep working on their designs.
Lila’s spell of deep disenchantment and resignation continues—she feels powerless to escape her situation. It is Rino who suggests that the shoes the two of them have worked so hard on don’t have to be wasted work—their father takes Marcello’s approval so seriously that if Marcello buys them and markets them, Fernando will get on board. Lila must now weigh whether her hatred of Marcello is more important than her dream of making and selling her shoe designs.
Themes
A week goes by and no one shows any interests in the special shoes in the window—not even Marcello. Eventually, Rino drags Marcello to the shop and forces him to try them on. Marcello does so, but he doesn’t compliment the shoes, and he hurries from the shop when he’s done. Rino is devastated. Marcello returns minutes later and tells Fernando that he wants to marry Lila—whom he calls “Lina.”
Lenù points out that Marcello—and everyone else—calls Lila “Lina” as a way of implying that Lenù is the only one who truly knows Lila. Marcello is a pretender—he doesn’t really care for Lila. If he did, Ferrante suggests, he might have purchased the shoes.
Themes
