Previous
Rosalind Connage
Monsignor Darcy is a Catholic priest who lives in upstate New York. He is close mentor to Amory. Monsignor Darcy had had a passionate love affair with Beatrice before she decided to marry Stephen Blaine for his background and money. This affair caused Darcy to have a “spiritual crisis” and convert to Catholicism. Amory visits Monsignor Darcy before he starts at St. Regis, and they immediately become close. They maintain a written correspondence throughout Amory’s life. Monsignor Darcy helps guide Amory through the process of coming of age. Monsignor Darcy introduces Amory to the concept of a “personality” versus “personage,” an idea that frames Amory’s quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement. Amory trusts Monsignor Darcy’s advice more than anyone else’s, and Monsignor Darcy considers Amory a “reincarnation’ of himself, implying that he considers himself to be like a father to Amory. Amory is very saddened by Monsignor Darcy’s sudden death later in the novel—much sadder than he was after his own father’s death. During Monsignor Darcy’s funeral, Amory realizes that he wants to be a better man whom people trust, like many people trusted Monsignor Darcy.
Monsignor Darcy Quotes in This Side of Paradise
The This Side of Paradise quotes below are all either spoken by Monsignor Darcy or refer to Monsignor Darcy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Chapter 3: The Egotist Considers Quotes
“A personality is what you thought you were, what this Kerry and Sloane you tell me of evidently are. Personality is a physical matter almost entirely; it lowers the people it acts on—I’ve seen it vanish in a long sickness. But while a personality is active, it overrides ‘the next thing.’ Now a personage, on the other hand, gathers. He is never thought of apart from what he’s done. He’s a bar on which a thousand things have been hung—glittering things sometimes, as ours are; but he uses those things with a cold mentality back of them.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this quote, Monsignor Darcy introduces the concept of a “personality” versus a “personage,” which shapes Amory’s understanding of himself for the rest of the novel. This concept introduces to Amory the idea that growing up and coming of age is not entirely a loss, but also that in gaining new experiences he is becoming a more mature version of himself. While earlier in the novel, Amory’s desire to conform has made him alter himself, this self-transformation still constitutes being a “personality” by this rubric: Amory’s steadfast belief in the social system has made him “override” the part of himself Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam offic
Interlude: May, 1917 – February, 1919 Quotes
This is the end of one thing: for better or worse you will never again be quite the Amory Blaine that I knew, never again will we meet as we have met, because your generation is growing hard, much harder than mine ever grew, nourished as they were in the stuff of the nineties.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This quote appears in a letter that Monsignor Darcy sends to Amory during the war. Here, from an older generation’s perspective, Monsignor Darcy articulates what he sees as the significance of the emerging generational divide and beginning of the modern world. Monsignor Darcy recognizes that Amory’s generation is enduring traumatic experiences that his own generation could never have imagined. “The nineties” here means the 1890s, a period in which the United States experienced unprecedented prosperity (for elites, at least) after decades of rapid industrialization. In the 1890s, the United States was gaining unprecedented global power, and a sense of perpetual Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Duc
Book 2, Chapter 5: The Egotist Becomes a Personage Quotes
Life opened up in one of its amazing bursts of radiance and Amory suddenly and permanently rejected an old epigram that had been playing listlessly in his mind: “Very few things matter and nothing matters very much.”
On the contrary, Amory felt an immense desire to give people a sense of security.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This passage demonstrates Amory’s significant character development over the course of the novel, as well as his newfound ability to relinquish some of his selfishness and indifference to others. Amory has this realization after Monsignor Darcy’s funeral near the end of the novel. This internal transformation also suggests the importance of Monsignor Darcy’s mentorship for Amory. In contrast to the death of Amory’s father, which did not stir much emotion in Amory, Monsignor Darcy’s death and his memory inspire Amory to be a better man. Monsignor Darcy’s influence also enables Amory’s to break free from the aimlessness that is common Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expe
Get the entire This Side of Paradise LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Monsignor Darcy Character Timeline in This Side of Paradise
The timeline below shows where the character Monsignor Darcy appears in This Side of Paradise. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 1: Amory, Son of Beatrice
...men to go to elite colleges. After taking his exams at St. Regis, Amory visits Monsignor Darcy , a friend and former lover of his mother who is now a Catholic priest...
(full context)
Book 1, Chapter 3: The Egotist Considers
Amory visits Monsignor Darcy at Christmas and admits that he wants to leave college, and that Kerry has asked...
(full context)
Book 1, Chapter 4: Narcissus Off Duty
...as long as he is the same Amory as before. Amory brings Burne to visit Monsignor Darcy , and they get along well. Afterwards, Darcy, in a letter, asks Amory to visit...
(full context)
Interlude: May, 1917 – February, 1919
In January 1918, Monsignor Darcy writes a letter to Amory, who is now a second lieutenant stationed in Long Island....
(full context)
Book 2, Chapter 2: Experiments in Convalescence
...than he loved Rosalind. He begins writing and reading again. Amory contacts a friend of Monsignor Darcy ’s, Mrs. Lawrence, who reminds him of Beatrice. Spending time with Mrs. Lawrence revives Amory’s...
(full context)
...about the spirit of the times and his lost youth. Amory receives a letter from Monsignor Darcy inviting Amory to visit him in Washington. When Tom’s mother becomes sick, they both move...
(full context)
Book 2, Chapter 4: The Supercilious Sacrifice
...telling him that his family’s money has run out. Soon after, he receives news that Monsignor Darcy has died.
(full context)
Book 2, Chapter 5: The Egotist Becomes a Personage
...questions the nature of progress, which he believes is the inheritance of his generation. At Monsignor Darcy ’s funeral, Amory realizes that he wants to give other people “a sense of security.”
(full context)
