Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Monk, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Catholicism and Hypocrisy
The Folly of Pride
Morality
Appearance vs. Reality
Human Nature
Summary
Analysis
Lorenzo’s grief over Agnes’s apparent death prevents him from reaching out to his uncle (the baron) about accepting his marriage to Antonia, and this, in turn, means Lorenzo can’t visit Antonia in the meantime (Elvira ordered Lorenzo not to see them until he could secure his uncle’s approval of the marriage). Elvira takes Lorenzo’s absence to mean that he has since found a new woman, and so she urges her daughter to forget about Lorenzo.
This introductory passage refreshes the reader’s memory about the novel’s various subplots while also showing how the different narratives are linked: Agnes’s apparent death indirectly keeps Lorenzo and Antonia apart. As a result, this leaves Antonia more susceptible to Ambrosio’s nefarious designs. In a broader sense, the interconnectedness of these conflicts underscores the complexity of human experience and the corresponding inadequacy of Elvira’s efforts to protect her daughter from the evils of the world.
Themes
Meanwhile, Raymond’s grief over Agnes is so great that he falls seriously ill. Theodore, fiercely loyal to his master, resolves to find a way inside the convent to learn more information about Agnes’s fate and whether she’s dead or merely being held against her will. He manages to ingratiate himself with the nuns, who find him quite handsome and charming. They take pity on him and decide he would make a great addition to the monastery, so the porteress leaves to see if this can be arranged. After she leaves, Theodore tries to glean more information about Agnes’s fate from the other nuns, but they only confirm that she has indeed died—one claims to have attended her funeral.
Theodore is the latest in a series of characters to assume a disguise in order to remain undetected while carrying out some hidden agenda. This reinforces the book’s thematic focus on the unreliability of appearances. It’s unclear whether the nuns are lying to Theodore about Agnes, whether they are just as clueless about her actual fate, or whether the prioress was being truthful when she told Lorenzo that Agnes had died.
Themes
The porteress returns with the prioress, who asks Theodore a series of questions and concludes that he may make a suitable monk. After they leave, Theodore continues to entertain the other nuns with tall tales of his travels. Then he sings a Danish ballad about a woman who falls in love with a nobleman but dies of unrequited love. After he’s finished singing, an elderly nun, Mother St. Ursula, approaches Theodore to give him a gift: a basket, which she claims contains “many hidden virtues.” She flashes Theodore a meaningful look and, in a voice only he can hear, whispers, “Agnes!” The prioress returns just then and angrily demands to speak with Mother St. Ursula. Excited at the possibility of new information for his master, Theodore leaves the convent in a hurry and heads back to hotel de las Cisternas.
Mother St. Ursula’s discreet message about the “many hidden virtues” contained within her basket further underscores the unreliability of appearances: although unsuspecting onlookers might find nothing out of ordinary about the basket, it’s obvious to readers and to Theodore that the elderly nun is using the basket as a vessel to deliver some hidden message concerning Agnes. This scene builds narrative tension, leaving Theodore (and readers) to wonder what secret information Mother St. Ursula has about Agnes’s fate. It also inspires a hint of optimism that, despite the Church’s immense corruption, there seems to be at least one nun who is invested in doing the just, moral thing.
Themes
At hotel de las Cisternas, Theodore tells Lorenzo about Mother St. Ursula and presents him with the basket. Hidden inside the basket is a letter from Ursula ordering them to get an order from the cardinal-duke to seize Ursula from the convent. She specifies that the order should not be executed until midnight on Friday, on the festival day of St. Clare. The nuns will lead a procession that night, and Ursula will be among them. She warns them not to tell anyone of their plans if they want to learn of the injustices that Agnes’s “assassins” inflicted upon her. Lorenzo responds to the letter with mixed emotions: while it confirms that Agnes has died, it gives him the opportunity to punish her murderers. Accordingly, he immediately acquires the order from the cardinal-duke.
Mother St. Ursula’s message, although vague, provides new and disappointing information about Agnes’s fate. The reference to Agnes’s “assassins” implies that while the prioress was being truthful when she claimed that Agnes’s had died, she was not being upfront about the cause of Agnes’s death: she didn’t die of natural causes—she was murdered. Although this is not the news that Lorenzo hoped for, Mother St. Ursula’s instructions at least outline a plan for him to hopefully bring the corrupt institution that caused Agnes’s undeserved death to justice.
Themes
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Meanwhile, after bidding Elvira goodnight, Antonia retires to her own chamber. She hears music coming from outside and looks out her window to find several men playing instruments. One of them looks just like Lorenzo—indeed, he is Lorenzo, though Antonia doesn’t realize it. Lorenzo has serenaded Antonia on several occasions, though she is too “modest” to recognize that his overtures are meant for her. Instead, she assumes they are for another woman, and she accordingly grieves her own unrequited love as she drifts off to sleep.
Elvira has sheltered Antonia from the world in order to protect her from harm, yet this scene shows that her efforts have had the opposite effect. In her confused and ignorant state, Antonia fails to recognize that Lorenzo returns her romantic feelings for her, and she suffers the pain of (what she believes to be) unrequited love as a result. Antonia’s misunderstanding reinforces the novel’s broader claim about human nature’s power over abstract moral frameworks or social norms: the sheltered existence that Elvira has forced onto Antonia cannot stop Antonia from feeling natural human emotions like love and sorrow.
Themes
At around 2:00 a.m., Ambrosio finally creeps inside Elvira’s apartment. He pauses for a moment to consider the grave consequences of the sin he is about to commit, should anyone learn of it, but he reassures himself that his reputation for piety would carry more weight than the accusations of two random women. With that, he enters Antonia’s room and places the myrtle upon Antonia’s pillow. Just as Matilda promised, she falls into a deep sleep.
Yet again, Ambrosio shows more concern for how his sin may damage his reputation than the moral consequences of committing the sin. This reinforces his hypocrisy, particularly as a religious authority.
Themes
Ambrosio undresses Antonia. But before he can assault her, Elvira bounds into the room, having been awoken by a nightmare that her daughter was in danger. Elvira condemns Ambrosio’s wickedness and declares that she will alert the entire city to his sins. She cries out for her servant Flora’s assistance. Ambrosio lunges toward Elvira to subdue her, gripping her neck to stifle her screams. He grabs a pillow from Antonia’s bed and holds it over Elvira’s face until she suffocates to death. He stares at her crumpled corpse on the floor and is immediately overtaken with remorse. More than this, he fears being discovered at the scene of his crime, and so he grabs the myrtle and runs back to his cell at the monastery, where he waits to be punished for his depraved act.
Having already broken his vow of celibacy and committed the sin of sorcery, Ambrosio adds yet another depraved act to his growing list of misdeeds: murder. Ambrosio’s murder of Elvira demonstrates the lengths he is willing to go to in order to protect his reputation: he literally commits an additional sin to prevent his attempted rape of Antonia (and the sin of sorcery he committed to aid in that endeavor) from coming to light. In other words, he is willing to further corrupt his soul with additional sins if it means his reputation will remain intact. Still, this chapter ends with something of a cliffhanger, leaving Ambrosio’s fate uncertain: will he finally face the consequences for his many acts of depravity, or will he continue to evade detection?
Themes
