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
The next evening, Emily wonders about Agnes, so she and Blanche walk together toward the convent. There, they see the abbess, who says that Agnes has been dying in a way that offers a positive example for everyone. She mentions that since Agnes has been ill, she sometimes mentions Emily.
Based on what the abbess says, this passage seems to once again suggest that confronting mortality can help a person to die without regrets, with Agnes facing death calmly. In fact, however, the Abbess is simply giving Emily a polite description of events, as the rest of the chapter describes.
Themes
Emily goes to see Agnes on her deathbed, thinking about the death of St. Aubert. Agnes looks at Emily wildly and starts talking about a crime that she (Agnes) committed when she was much younger. Later, when Agnes recovers her senses, she asks if Emily is the daughter of the Marchioness De Villeroi. Emily is confused, but Agnes is sure of it. She asks another nun to bring in a casket.
Agnes’s wild way of speaking confirms that perhaps the abbess was exaggerating how well Agnes was accepting her death. On the brink of dying, Agnes continues to ask about the Marchioness De Villeroi, who is long dead, suggesting that Agnes was never able to escape her past.
Themes
A nun brings in a casket, and inside, Emily sees a miniature portrait that looks exactly like the mysterious miniature of a woman that St. Aubert had. Agnes asks the nun to pull out a second miniature. In this one, the woman is clearly Signora Laurentini (whom Emily recognizes from her portrait in Udolpho). Agnes asserts that she is in fact the woman in the second miniature, meaning she is Signora Laurentini after all (and that Montoni did not in fact murder her).
The final volume of the book continues to wrap up the unresolved central mysteries. While the novel contains several characters that correspond to each other, this passage takes that a step further, revealing that Agnes literally is Signora Laurentini after taking a new name. This means that Montoni didn’t murder Laurentini (although it certainly seems that he played some role in forcing her to go into a monastery).
Themes
Agnes tells the full story. She claims that Emily is actually the daughter of the Marchioness De Villeroi, even as Emily herself denies it. When the Marchioness married the Marquis, she was more in love with a gentleman from Gascony. Meanwhile Agnes herself (that is, Signora Laurentini) was in love with the Marquis. This led to Laurentini and the Marquis plotting to murder the Marchioness with poison, a deed that still weighs on Laurentini’s conscience. After the murder, the Marquis felt too much guilt to live with Laurentini, so he went off.
On the verge of death, Agnes makes her confession in an attempt to try to finally remove the weight of guilt that she has been carrying around for so long. Agnes’s confessions are less a twist, more a confirmation of things the novel has already strongly implied (such as the fact that the Marquis was involved in poisoning the Marchioness). Once again, this story show the lengths that some people will go to for the sake of greed.
Themes
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Agnes begins to convulse, and a horrified Emily has to leave. She promises to come back to visit. Emily wonders whether perhaps St. Aubert really was the rumored secret lover of the Marchioness De Villeroi, since he had her miniature.
When Agnes begins to convulse, Emily again has to face what mortality looks like. In spite of overcoming many challenges over the course of the novel, she continues to face new tests.
Themes
The next morning, Emily doesn’t feel well enough to come back and see the abbess as she promised. Bonnac, a friend of Du Pont’s, happens to be in the area and comes to visit. Bonnac mentions that he was in jail at one point, and as soon as Valancourt got out, he used his own money to help get Bonnac out. He believes the main reason Valancourt ended up in jail for debts is his own generosity. Valancourt did indeed get seduced by gambling in Paris, but in jail he repented, according to Bonnac.
The novel has already explored several cases where rumors and paranoia got out of hand, and Bonnac sets the stage for a happy ending by revealing that Valancourt himself has been the victim of false rumors. By framing Valancourt’s failing as an excess of generosity rather than greed, Bonnac helps Emily understand that Valancourt did not change in Paris as much as she feared.
Themes
Bonnac continues talking about Valancourt and how the idea that Valancourt accepted money from a marchioness to get out of jail was always just a rumor with no truth to it. It seems that Count De Villefort was misinformed, and, somewhat reluctantly, even Du Pont speaks up about Valancourt’s benevolent character, knowing that it will ruin any chance for Du Pont himself to have a relationship with Emily.
Just as Valancourt showed good character by accepting Emily’s rejection earlier, Du Pont now partly redeems himself for his earlier stalking of Emily by assuring her of Valancourt’s good character.
Themes
