Previous
Chapter 5: Seven Galleys Laden in Gold
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Marriage Portrait, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Art, Voyeurism, and Control
Duality and Identity
Gender Roles, Male Violence, and Female Solidarity
Primal Freedom vs. Civilized Imprisonment
Destiny vs. Chance
Summary
Analysis
Back at the fortress in 1561, Alfonso remarks that Lucrezia seems cold, and they move to the fireplace, where he pulls her into his lap. She cannot tell his motives from his face and wonders if her imagination has carried her away in thinking he means to hurt her. As a distraction, she kisses him. Alfonso’s enthusiastic response convinces her that he must love her after all, that her mind is, indeed, playing tricks on her. Ascending the stairs, Lucrezia asks when her maidservants will arrive. Alfonso speculates it will not be tonight, and again Lucrezia struggles to paint the situation as innocent. He leads her to her chamber.
Alfonso’s calm demeanor makes Lucrezia question her conviction that he means to kill her. Her concern that she is being too imaginative shows how her family’s dismissal of her imaginative disposition is ingrained in her mind. While Lucrezia has hinted at her husband’s darker side, it has yet to appear in the novel, making the reader doubtful as well. Even so, Lucrezia’s general uncertainty about Alfonso’s motives suggest he is more manipulative than forthright, and this characterizes him as cunning.
Active
Themes
