Emilia Character Analysis

One morning in the villa, Lucrezia questions Emilia about why she never saw her in the palace before her wedding day, to which Emilia responds that she used to see Lucrezia quite often when she was very young. Emilia’s mother nursed Lucrezia while she stayed in the kitchens, and the two girls used to play together. The incident with the boiling pot that Emilia describes in this passage resulted in her disfigurement and Lucrezia’s removal from the kitchens. Despite her difference in status, Emilia has always considered Lucrezia’s empathetic reaction—even as a toddler—an indication of her compassionate spirit. As the novel goes on, Emilia’s companionship and solidarity sustain Lucrezia through the difficulties of her marriage, and this passage suggests the origins of their connection stretch back to birth.

Emilia and Lucrezia’s similarities play a large role in the novel’s discussion of fate and chance. In this dialogue, Emilia argues that it was better for her to be disfigured than Lucrezia, who is destined for greater things, having been born into nobility. This comment implies a kind of fate was at play in the incident. Significantly, Lucrezia pushes back against this idea, though she has trouble articulating why. Emilia’s remarks eerily foreshadow her own death at Alfonso’s hands, when he mistakes her for Lucrezia. To read her death as fate requires the reader to prioritize Lucrezia’s life over Emilia’s, which does not align with the novel’s portrayal of the girls as mirrors of one another. Rather, Lucrezia’s remark—“Better that it had been neither of us”—defies the patriarchal idea that female suffering is necessary, although the outcome in which neither her nor Emilia is hurt never comes to pass.