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
Emily stays in her apartment to avoid Montoni’s men like Verezzi and Bertolini. Ludovico reports to her that there is indeed a French prisoner being kept in one of the castle apartments. A few days later, Ludovico says he hopes to actually meet with this prisoner. When Ludovico finally gets to meet the prisoner, he comes back to confirm that it is indeed a man who remembers Emily well. Emily believes this must be Valancourt and tells Ludovico to report back to the prisoner that she still feels the same way about him.
The beginning of this chapter finally explores the mystery of the French prisoner in the castle. Although Ludovico’s reports convince Emily that it must be Valancourt in the dungeon, there are several reasons to doubt this, including the earlier passage where Emily ran into a mysterious man that she didn’t know but who claimed that he recognized her.
Themes
It takes a week for Ludovico to have another chance to visit the prisoner. He comes back to Emily with the news that he might be able to bring her the man, and so Emily begins to count down the time until she sees Valancourt again. But when the time comes for the meeting, Emily is devastated to learn that the Frenchman in jail isn’t Valancourt after all. His name is Du Pont, and he is indeed from Gascony. He claims that Emily probably knows his family, that he was the one who used to visit her at the fishing house, and that he loves her.
The character of Du Pont ends up resolving not only the mystery of the castle music, but also the mystery of the lute music that used to come out of the fishing house at the very beginning of the novel. In some ways Du Pont is a cross between Valancourt and Count Morano, showing some genuine understanding of what Emily values, but also operating with a delusional sense of how Emily feels about him.
Themes
Du Pont confesses to stealing Madame St. Aubert’s miniature of Emily and promises to give it back. Just as Du Pont is talking about how he can’t conquer his passion for Emily, Verezzi walks in and tells Du Pont he will teach him to conquer it. Du Pont knocks Verezzi down and stuns him. He, Emily, Annette, and Ludovico flee as more of Montoni’s people start to rush toward them. The confusion gives them a rare opportunity to get out of the castle gates. They seize some horses for the journey.
Du Pont’s theft of the miniature, combined with the secretive way that he has been watching Emily, suggest that while he is not as crooked as Montoni, he is nevertheless a potentially dubious character. Still, for all his faults, Du Pont also proves himself willing to protect Emily by fighting off Verezzi, making Du Pont a complicated character.
Themes
Emily is so used to being stuck in the castle that she feels like she’s dreaming when she leaves it. It’s dark out, and Ludovico warns them to beware of bandits. As they’re all traveling, Annette suddenly realizes that none of them have any money. With no way to pay for lodging, and also wanting to get away from Montoni, they keep going until the sun rises. As they look around in the light after staying at a stable, Ludovico discovers that the stolen horse he’s riding is carrying a purse with just enough money to get them to France.
As is often the case in the novel, darkness represents uncertainty about the future, but in this case, it perhaps has a more hopeful meaning than usual. Similarly, the group’s lack of money may seem at first to be a bad omen, but things quickly turn around when Ludovico discovers the purse on his horse, making it seem as if their journey is fated to succeed after all.
Themes
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The travelers head toward a seaport that can take them to France. They stop around noon to eat some wild fruit in a grove, feeling in high spirits, then they decide to sleep in the shade through the hottest part of the day. When they wake, Emily and Du Pont talk, and he admits that some of the supernatural things she saw and heard at Udolpho may have been him, sneaking around to try to get a better view of her, during one of the rare times when he was out of prison.
Free from Udolpho, Emily and the others finally get to experience the wonders of nature again, like the wild fruit and the shade of the trees. Although Du Pont cannot fully explain everything that happened at Udolpho, he suggests that perhaps there’s nothing supernatural going on at Udolpho after all, proving St. Aubert’s lessons about thinking rationally correct.
Themes
The travelers continue toward the Mediterranean. They make it to the sea and arrange a boat that will take them to Marseilles, where they’ll be able to transfer to Narbonne. On the ship, Emily is inspired to write a long poem about a mariner.
Emily has long been fascinated by water, as her earlier poem about Neptune that she composed in Venice showed. Her return to writing poetry, after a gap while she was at Udolpho, represents a return to her old self.
Themes
