Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysteries of Udolpho, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marriage, Love, and Inheritance
The Wonders of Nature
Mystery and Superstition
Mortality
The Value of Education and Art
Summary
Analysis
St. Aubert wakes early the next morning, ready to continue the journey. Valancourt discovers that he’s headed in the same direction as St. Aubert for a while, so he offers to accompany him, and St. Aubert gladly accepts. Valancourt insists on walking, however, refusing to take a seat in St. Aubert’s small carriage with him and Emily. When their paths finally diverge, Valancourt lingers talking for a long while before finally waving to them and walking away.
As Valancourt reveals more about himself, it seems that perhaps he is even too generous, refusing simple hospitality like a place in the carriage out of principle rather than to help out anyone else. Although the novel clearly paints selfish characters in a negative light, it raises the question of how selfless a person should be, and whether it may even be possible to be too generous.
Themes
St. Aubert and Emily begin traveling now over rough and uneven terrain. They have dinner, and it begins to get dark. When they see a light ahead, they fear at first that it might be bandits. From behind, they hear horses, and St. Aubert urges Michael to speed the mules up. However, the stubborn mules keep the same pace. A man rides up beside the carriage, and St. Aubert shoots. He’s horrified, immediately after, when he thinks he hears the voice of Valancourt.
The rough terrain of the mountains symbolizes the difficulties that St. Aubert and Emily now have to face together due to St. Aubert’s illness. This passage also captures how people can have an irrational fear of the unknown. Even St. Aubert, who always urges self-restraint, gets so paranoid that he ends up accidentally shooting at Valancourt, showing the dangers of giving in to fear.
Themes
St. Aubert stops the carriage and finds that it is indeed Valancourt who has been knocked off his horse. Valancourt tries to reassure St. Aubert that even though he’s bleeding on his arm from the gunshot, it isn’t serious. Michael manages to find Valancourt’s horse. Valancourt explains that he realized the main purpose of his journey is amusement, and since he prefers being among other people, he believes it would be best to travel with St. Aubert longer.
Valancourt’s generosity is so overwhelming that at times it even becomes comical, as it does here, when Valancourt tries to reassure St. Aubert that being shot in the arm and knocked off a horse actually didn’t hurt that much. This passage suggests that Valancourt has a strong motivation to want to keep traveling with St. Aubert and Emily, perhaps hinting early at a romance with Emily.
Themes
St. Aubert, Emily, and Valancourt all travel to the big fire they saw ahead earlier. They see that it belongs to a camp of “gipsies.” Both St. Aubert and Valancourt anxiously hold their pistols as their carriage passes the camp, but no one attacks them. They reach the remote town of Beaujeu and head for the inn, where they call a surgeon to examine Valancourt’s arm. It turns out the bullet passed through him without hitting any bone.
The travelers’ journey introduces them to a wide range of people, some of whom seem ready to rob them and others who generously offer assistance. The journey is in particular a coming-of-age moment for Emily, who begins to learn what the wider world is like outside of La Vallée, where her father could protect her.
Themes
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That night, Valancourt sleeps feverishly, and the surgeon advises him not to travel. St. Aubert decides to wait until Valancourt has recovered. He and Emily stay in Beaujeu for several days, exploring the surrounding countryside. Eventually, Valancourt recovers enough to travel but not to ride a horse, so St. Aubert invites him to come in their carriage. Valancourt accepts, and they go off traveling at a leisurely pace.
Valancourt’s feverish sleep suggests that his injuries have hurt him more than he let on. One common romance trope is to portray love as a type of fever, and so it’s possible that Valancourt’s physical feelings of sickness are related to his growing feelings for Emily, whom he must soon say goodbye to.
Themes
The road gets steeper, and along the way, there are lots of interesting plants for St. Aubert to study. The view from up this high path is sublime, and eventually, they start descending toward the region of Rousillon. They spend so much time admiring the scenery that they don’t make it to their goal, the town of Montigny, by nightfall. They get out of the carriage, figuring it is safer to walk than ride. Valancourt mentions that there is a convent nearby that might be able to provide lodging or at least give them directions. A weary St. Aubert agrees to this plan.
Once again, the condition of the road has symbolic significance, as the increasing steepness of the path indicates the harder and harder difficulties the travelers must face. Still, even at difficult times like this, the scenery continues to be beautiful, showing how St. Aubert and Emily are so sensitive to nature’s wonder that they notice it even in times of trouble.
Themes
St. Aubert, Emily, and Valancourt walk along, pausing for St. Aubert to rest. They emerge from a forest and come up to the convent, where the mother superior and some friars offer them food and a place for the night. They separate at night, with a nun taking Emily off on her own to the convent.
In spite of the difficulties on their journey, the travels still have moments of rest like this. The fact that friars and nuns are providing hospitality for St. Aubert suggests that God is rewarding him for his faith.
Themes
Emily wakes about two hours later to the sound of bells. She fears something has happened to St. Aubert before realizing that it’s just some sort of midnight religious service. She listens for a while to the strange chanting before falling back to sleep.
Emily finds the religious rituals at the monastery strange, perhaps reflecting how Radcliffe and much of her original audience in predominantly Protestant England would have found the Catholic traditions of France strange.
Themes
