Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Leopard, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Survival and Decline
The Inevitability of Change
Class Conflict and Revolution
Love vs. Sensuality
Summary
Analysis
By October, the rainy season has come and gone, bringing milder weather. The Prince goes hunting daily with his friend Don Ciccio Tumeo, savoring the early morning solitude and the escape from the palace bustle. To him, the unchanging landscape of rural Sicily feels remote from everything else in both space and time.
For the Prince, the atmosphere of rural Italy is rather like the stars: an environment onto which he can project his imagination and find solace in the illusion that things don’t change.
Themes
The Prince has been consumed by worries over the past two months—worries about the political situation, the young people’s passions, and his own reactions to situations. Daily, he tries to resolve these worries, which didn’t bother him so relentlessly while the family was staying at Donnafugata. Though the arrival there was normal, change rushed at him, and he hasn’t been able to resist it “with a wave of his paw” as a leopard should do.
The Prince finds that Donnafugata no longer provides a respite from the concerns of the wider world or his anxiety about his own status. This suggests that the outside world is bringing about more far-reaching changes than the Prince has been willing to admit. He’s used to a world in which worries seldom touch him, where he can sweep change aside and remain aloof and unaffected.
Themes
Tancredi is gone now, staying in apartments at the King’s palace at Caserta. He regularly sends letters with fond greetings for Concetta. Angelica visits often and asks after Tancredi, which provokes an odd mixture of pride and jealousy in the Prince; he always responds with measured caution. The Prince also feels ashamed of his lust and, at the same time, frustrated by the moral scruples that prevent him from acting on it. These scruples also reflect his discomfort with the social situation in which he’s helplessly caught up.
The Prince is proud of Tancredi’s ability to win Angelica’s affections, yet also envious. This exemplifies the conflict within his personality—his characteristic lust wars against his nagging moral conscience. But there’s another layer as well: Tancredi feels more free to pursue a woman from outside the nobility, and this sparks ambivalence and frustration in the Prince’s mind. He has never enjoyed that freedom.
Themes
Last night, the Prince received an especially neat and carefully worded letter from Tancredi. In formal words, Tancredi informs his uncle that he has been unable to shake himself free of his love for Angelica Sedàra. He begs his uncle to speak to Don Calogero on his behalf, even though Tancredi has nothing of his own to offer. Tancredi even argues that old families need new blood, and that from a class perspective, intermarriage can have an equalizing effect. The Prince is dizzied by this letter—he feels that society is changing too fast. He’s proud of his nephew yet humiliated by the necessity of undergoing marriage negotiations with the likes of Don Calogero. Yet when the Princess protests the match, the Prince sternly informs her that his mind is made up.
Things have progressed between Tancredi and Angelica: he isn’t simply attracted to her but desires to marry her, something unthinkable to a prince of past generations. Tancredi is in a delicate position because, as a penniless orphan, he doesn’t have the goods to offer a bride that other members of his class would. He also has to persuade his uncle that marrying the daughter of a social climber like Don Calogero is a good idea. The Prince doesn’t like the idea, yet he also senses that Tancredi is the family’s best hope, so he can’t deny him. The Prince is caught between his class anxiety and his ambitions (and love) for his nephew.
Themes
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The Prince goes to the countryside with his friend Tumeo to escape from all this. There, the scrubby hillsides are in the same condition as they were many centuries ago, when peoples like the Phoenicians, Dorians, and Ionians first came to Sicily. This sense of sameness comforts the Prince. After shooting a rabbit, the two men rest and eat lunch under some trees. As the Prince watches a swarm of ants attacking the remains of their lunch, he’s reminded of the recent Plebiscite for the Unification. The vote left the Prince with many unanswered questions.
This scene is a striking juxtaposition of ancient and very recent events. The wilderness provides an illusion of sameness (the environment supposedly hasn’t changed since the ancient Phoenicians first colonized Sicily), while the Prince ponders major political changes. The Plebiscite was a nationwide vote that was intended to confirm the Sicilian people’s will to unite with the Italian state.
Themes
The Prince asks Tumeo how he voted in the Plebiscite, startling his friend. When Tumeo recovers, he points out that Donnafugata’s outcome was unanimous. The Prince already knew this. Before the vote, many people had approached him for advice, and he’d encouraged them to vote “yes”—he hadn’t known what else to say; he didn’t want Donnafugata to suffer for its resistance to the new regime. The Prince himself had voted “yes” and then drunk a reluctant toast with the mayor, Don Calogero, who already had portraits of Garibaldi and the new King, Victor Emmanuel, on his office walls. Later that night, the mayor had announced that all 512 voters had voted “yes.”
Even though the Prince clings to sameness, he senses that change is beyond his control—that’s why he encourages his own dependents not to resist the new political regime. At the same time, he dreads change, sensing that even as he votes for the new Italian state and its king, he is participating in his own, his family’s, and his noble class’s undoing.
Themes
So Italy had become a nation that night; the Prince accepted this. Yet he was bothered by a vague sense of unease, as if something had been lost forever. Finally, Tumeo, in a burst of passion, admits that he voted “no” against the Prince’s advice. The Town Hall officials had simply altered his vote, annulling his first opportunity to have a voice. The Prince finally understands what’s been bothering him. Good faith, he now understands, was killed at the birth of the new nation. No matter how many people had voted “no” throughout the Kingdom, the outcome would have been the same. The Prince is impressed by Tumeo’s response and wonders if he actually behaved more nobly during the Plebiscite than the Prince himself did.
The Prince learns that there have been corrupt dealings behind the plebiscite, and that Don Calogero was involved. Though the revolution has been portrayed as an opportunity for the common people to finally have a voice, it’s actually a betrayal: the votes of resisters to the new regime were simply annulled. This accounts for the Prince’s nagging discomfort with the regime. Confirming his suspicions, it turns out that the new political regime is as corrupt as the old one; they simply use different rhetoric. Change has been external only.
Themes
As the men resume hunting, the Prince is troubled by another question. Thinking of the upcoming conversation about Tancredi’s marriage, he encourages Tumeo to tell him what local people really think of Don Calogero. Tumeo explains that Don Calogero is a clever and able politician whose career is only beginning; before long, he’ll be the province’s biggest landowner. The Prince wonders if alliance with such a newly moneyed family could have benefits for his own class. He asks to hear more about the Sedàra family.
By marrying Tancredi off to Don Calogero’s daughter, the Prince permanently ties his family’s fortunes to those of the rising class. He is open to the possibility that this could be a good thing for his own family, whose fortunes he’s sensed are in decline. Even though he’s just heard how corrupt Don Calogero is, the Prince is desperately looking for a reason to accept him—showing that he’s more concerned about his family’s status than he’s let on.
Themes
Tumeo explains that Don Calogero’s wife has seldom been seen over the years. She is a beautiful woman, yet she’s said to be animalistic and barely able to talk or reason—therefore, her husband keeps her hidden away. Tumeo points out a distant, decrepit village where Donna Bastiana’s father, a “savage” man, is from; he was found shot to death two years after Don Calogero and Donna Bastiana eloped. Though the Prince has heard this story before, he feels shaken—how, he wonders, can Tancredi be associated with such people? He asks Tumeo about Angelica’s reputation. Unsuspecting, Tumeo praises Angelica’s beauty and newfound “lady” status, speaking with lyricism and a touch of sexual innuendo.
The Sedàras’ origins are embarrassingly low compared to those of the Salinas: they come from the impoverished peasantry, and violence and rumors of mental disability cling to them. Even Don Calogero tries to hide the evidence. These details take on new significance now that the Prince is considering intermarriage between the two groups. The story of the Sedàras will inevitably reflect on Tancredi and therefore on the Prince himself. Unaware of the possible marriage, Tumeo feels free to objectify Angelica—he assumes that she isn’t the type of woman who could ever become linked to the Salinas.
Themes
The Prince tells Tumeo to restrain himself and reveals that Tancredi is seeking Angelica’s hand. He tells Tumeo that he’ll have to lock him up in the gun room during the impending conversation with Don Calogero, so that there’s no risk of the news leaking out prematurely. Tumeo is horrified by this news and throws restraint aside; he says that while Tancredi’s seduction of Angelica was an admirable conquest, marriage is “unconditional surrender”—the end of the Salinas family. The Prince instantly flares up in rage. This marriage, he thinks, is not the end, but “the beginning of everything.” Seeing the Prince’s anger, Tumeo cringes with regret at his words, but the Prince drops the matter and calmly suggests that they head home.
Tumeo is so shocked by the idea of Tancredi and Angelica marrying that he speaks more openly than he would have dared to do otherwise. In his eyes, it would be okay for Tancredi to view Angelica as a mere sexual conquest. To marry her, though, is an admission that the Salinas are no better than the Sedàras—an affront to the Tumeo’s pride in the nobility. His reaction illustrates the depth of perceived class differences in conservative Sicily. The Prince, though, continues to tell himself that the marriage is a step forward for his family; he refuses to believe that his actions will contribute to their decline.
Themes
Later that afternoon, the Prince takes care in dressing before he meets with Don Calogero, trying to imagine that he’s a leopard about to destroy a jackal. However, instead, he is irritated when he remembers a picture of elegant Austrian forces surrendering to a squat, unimpressive Napoleon. In his study, he finds Don Calogero dressed in unsuitable black clothes, looking small but expectant and slyly intelligent. Father Pirrone sits in a corner, trying to look oblivious.
As the Prince thinks about the historical example of Napoleon’s victory, he likens his own situation to a cultured army surrendering to a scruffy upstart—a far cry from a dignified lion destroying a small predator. Again, he suspects that unstoppable changes are in motion, though things seem to be fundamentally out of balance.
Themes
The two men quickly get to the point: The Prince admits that he received a letter from Tancredi, in which the young man declared his love for Angelica. Don Calogero says he isn’t surprised—he saw the two kissing in the Salinas’ garden, and he now wishes to ask the Prince what his intentions are. The Prince feels a flash of sensual envy and also annoyance that he was unable to break the news himself, and that events have been developing behind his back. Nevertheless, he pulls himself together and explains that Tancredi seeks Angelica’s hand in marriage. Don Calogero replies that, being a modern parent, he will have to ask Angelica’s consent—but he is sure she will agree. The Prince feels relieved that the worst is behind him.
As a member of the nobility, the Prince finds it humiliating to have to approach the mayor of Donnafugata for his daughter’s hand. After his conversation with Tumeo, it feels like the beginning of the end for the Salinas. On top of this, the Prince discovers that Don Calogero already has the upper hand in this situation: though the Prince makes the first move, the mayor already knows more about the couple than he does. His sense of control over his circumstances continues to decline.
Themes
The two men embrace awkwardly, the mayor’s short legs lifted off the floor. The Prince moves the discussion forward: the Falconeri family has a long and honorable history in Sicily, which he is sure that Angelica will help to perpetuate. Becoming uncomfortable again, he then admits that the family’s present fortunes are poor, and that Tancredi no longer has great estates to his name, just a single villa. Nevertheless, Tancredi is an extraordinary boy who understands the times and should go far.
The conversation continues to be awkward—even the men’s physical stature is uneven, mirroring their disparity in social class. The Prince also finds himself in the uncomfortable position of admitting that, financially, Tancredi doesn’t bring much to the table, despite his noble status. For all intents and purposes, then, Tancredi’s nobility is merely a title.
Themes
Don Calogero (though privately sorry to detect real affection in Angelica toward Tancredi) claims that love is all that truly matters. Since he’s “a man of the world,” however, he then lists the large estate, the groves and vineyards, and the sacks of gold that will be bestowed on the couple on their wedding day. Despite the mayor’s vulgarity, the Prince is amazed by this dowry. Don Calogero adds that the Sedàras, too, are an old noble family, which he can prove as soon as he gets the papers in order. The Prince feels depressed as Don Calogero fulfills his “type” precisely. He brings the visit to a close by falling into a hostile silence. On his way to his wife’s room to break the news, the Prince receives the courteous smiles of his household—except for Concetta, who remains bent over her embroidery and doesn’t turn to acknowledge him.
Don Calogero’s cynicism runs deep—he’d actually prefer that Angelica pursue Tancredi out of social ambition alone, not out of affection. Nevertheless, he puts on a façade about “love” even as he ticks off the riches that his daughter will bring to the marriage—riches that vastly outweigh Tancredi’s. Though the Prince is duly impressed by this, he is annoyed by Don Calogero’s faux pas in drawing attention to his family’s supposed noble history—a person with true class would leave things like that unsaid. In doing so, then, Don Calogero confirms his lower-class status. As the matter draws to a conclusion, the Prince senses that he’s betrayed Concetta, as her withdrawn demeanor suggests.
Themes
