The Monk: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Ambrosio, meanwhile, is in the vault with Antonia, unaware of the chaos that has been ensuing aboveground.  Matilda told him the drug he’d given Antonia would wear off around 1:00 a.m., and he eagerly awaits Antonia’s awakening and all that he will do to her once she regains consciousness. At long last, the hour arrives. Antonia comes to and gradually takes in her horrific surroundings. When she recognizes Ambrosio—whom she still considers her friend—she pleads with him to return her to safety. He sternly explains her situation to her. There’s no use struggling, Ambrosio tells Antonia, for everybody thinks she’s dead, and now she is his to do with as he pleases. She resists his advances, but this only heightens Ambrosio’s arousal. He rapes her and then, immediately aware of the base crime he has just committed, feels overwhelming disgust. 

Antonia begs Ambrosio to release her now that her “ruin [is] completed,” but Ambrosio refuses. He tells Antonia that it was “thy beauty” which compelled him to sin, and so now she must remain in the crypt forever, surrounded by the decaying bodies. Ambrosio considers Antonia’s hopeless, wretched state and almost decides to have mercy on her, but the possibility of her revealing his sins to the public is too great a risk, and he knows he must keep her imprisoned within the tomb forever. 

Just then, Matilda appears, and Antonia is briefly relieved at the possibility that she might be rescued. Matilda tells Ambrosio about the mob that has overtaken the convent. She also informs him that Lorenzo and his troops are in the vault and will soon find Antonia, and that it’s in Ambrosio’s best interest to kill her before they reach her. Ambrosio curses Matilda and tells her he wishes he’d never met her. But just then, he hears the approaching footsteps of Lorenzo and his gang. Realizing he has no other choice, he takes Matilda’s dagger and stabs Antonia to death—but not before Don Ramirez arrives at the cavern and identifies Ambrosio as Antonia’s murderer.

Ambrosio flees, and Don Ramirez runs after him. Lorenzo arrives and recognizes the bleeding woman as Antonia. He cradles her in his arms, and her final moments are thus filled with a bittersweet happiness as they confess their love for each other. She dies in his arms. Meanwhile, Don Ramirez and Lorenzo’s gang catch up to Ambrosio before he can escape.

After things have settled, Ambrosio’s and Matilda’s cells are seized and searched for evidence to present to the Inquisition. The convent is ruined beyond repair, and its nuns are expelled into regular society. The public shuns them, though most come from noble families who accept them, albeit reluctantly and “with a very ill grace.” It’s also revealed that all the nuns other than the prioress’s confidants were convinced of Agnes’s death. Still, the angry mob attacked and killed any nuns it could find, even some who were innocent of any serious wrongdoing.

Virginia, meanwhile, succeeds at her task of ingratiating herself with Lorenzo and his noble family, and after Lorenzo escorts her and the still-unidentified prisoner to her father’s palace, he asks to see her again from time to time. After Lorenzo leaves, Virginia sets to work tending to the emaciated woman—whom she eventually recognizes as Agnes! Virginia knew Agnes at the convent, but the poor girl was initially unrecognizable in her wretched, malnourished state. Under Virginia’s diligent care, Agnes regains her senses and her strength. Lorenzo is overjoyed to learn of his sister’s survival. It’s not long before Agnes asks after Raymond, who is likewise overjoyed. Meanwhile, Lorenzo’s and Virginia’s feelings for each other grow, though Lorenzo continues to grieve Antonia. 

After Agnes recovers, she fills in some of the details of the horrific things that were done to her before and after her “supposed death.” She explains that the prioress made her drink a potion that mimicked the effects of death. She lost consciousness, and when she came to, she was horrified to find that she had been locked in the crypt. She realized that she must have been mistaken for dead and accordingly laid to rest. Starving and unable to escape, she banged her head against the sharp edge of a tomb, trying to kill herself. Eventually the prioress and her four nuns visited Agnes in the tomb. The prioress explained that Agnes’s burial was no accident: this was her punishment. She was to remain in the tomb for the rest of her days—subsisting solely on bread and water—as punishment for sins.

Agnes was pregnant when she was buried, and eventually she gave birth to a premature baby, who perished not long after. Still, Agnes cradled the baby in her arms, continuing to rock and comfort it, even as it rotted into “a mass of putridity.” Meanwhile, the prioress ordered her inner circle to torment and berate Agnes in order to make her punishment as unbearable as possible. Agnes closes her tale by thanking those who allowed for her rescue—namely Mother St. Ursula and Lorenzo.

It’s revealed that Agnes’s tormenters either died in the convent fire or were killed by the mob. In the end, Raymond and Agnes finally marry, as do Lorenzo and Virginia, though Antonia maintains a special place in Lorenzo’s heart. They go on to live happy lives despite the horror they all endured.