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
At Lila’s wedding ceremony, as Lila walks down the aisle looking “dazzling,” Lenù is distressed to realize that her own mother is looking at Lenù with regret. Lenù realizes that her parents don’t see her success in school as real or important. Lenù’s “bad friend” has acquired a wealthy husband, a house of her own, and money for her family. Antonio sits on Lenù’s other side through the long ceremony—he whispers to her several times, but she ignores him, afraid of her mother deducing the nature of their relationship.
Lenù has been working so hard for so many years to find a way of steering her own destiny. It’s therefore painful for Lenù to realize that her parents see Lila’s choice as the enviable one. The idea of marriage fills Lenù herself with apprehension and something bordering on revulsion.
Themes
As Lenù looks around the church, she is stunned by how well-dressed everyone is. She knows that many people must have borrowed money for their outfits—and as she looks at Silvio Solara, the speech master, standing in front of the church next to his wife “loaded” with jewels, she realizes that everyone in the neighborhood has borrowed from him. He has replaced Don Achille, and he runs the neighborhood now.
Lenù begins to feel despondent over the never-ending, cyclical exchanges of money and power in her neighborhood. No matter who runs the show and pulls the strings, there will always be violence, extortion, and cruelty.
Themes
Lenù notices that Lila will not look at anyone but the priest—not Silvio, not her father, and not even Stefano. Lenù is full of anxiety—she wonders if Lila is making a decision with ramifications that neither of them can fully comprehend. As Lila and Stefano exchange rings and kiss, Lenù is shocked to realize that her friend is really and truly married. Lenù looks around the church, realizing that she hasn’t yet seen Alfonso—he is standing at the back with Marisa and Nino Sarratore.
Lila’s wedding ceremony takes on a surreal, hurried quality in Elena’s memory. Her recollection and retelling of the momentous occasion seems to suggest that there are difficult things in store for Lila, even though she has chosen marriage in an attempt to advance and protect herself.
Themes
