The use of the landscape in Betrothed is a very important technical factor that leads to solving a fundamental problem: how to show the reader deep into the soul of the characters while giving a spatial location in the open the story (the open field contrasts with the closed field represented by a house or even a room), and is always described with great sobriety. Is often the commentary on events and the mirror the mood of the characters. The famous description of that branch of Lake Como offers the reader the spatial coordinates of the affair and framed in a halo of poetry. The signs of famine, which has also attacked the villagers, are highlighted at the beginning of chapter IV with the representation of farmers who sow sparingly and concern, with the little girl who leads a lean cow and subtracts edible herbs, wearing the family. The Farewell to the mountains, at the end of Chapter VIII emphasizes the yearning for Lucy who is moving away from expensive places, taking leave with anguish, while the sky bright, welcoming Renzo after fording the Adda at dawn and having won the freedom (Chapter XVII) seems to promise a bright future. The valley is dark and barren mountains on which the Castle of the falls are an introduction to the understanding of its violence, while the sky above it seems to be the interlocutor, as a conscience for the tyrant (Chapter XX). And when he, after a dramatic night in which Lucy's words suggested a possible solution to the discomfort of his life, facing the window, he sees clearly cheered by ringing the valley and the sky gray path from light clouds: symbolize seem his past that is crumbling, giving way in the light of Divine Providence (Chapter XX). There are many indications of landscape seem to configure aspects of human life. When Renzo returns to his country, ravaged by the plague and the descent of the mercenaries, his vineyard is destroyed and infested with weeds: a tangible sign of moral disorder of the times (ch. XXXIII). Instead, the landscape of heavy, oppressed by the heat destroyed by the plague in Milan and shower away the joyful contagion (chapter XXXVI), not only stress an atmosphere, but translate into concrete terms a widespread state of mind: the languor and the fatigue of despair is replaced by a joyful hope, almost a sense of purification and renewal. In some cases, more than one can speak of the landscape setting. We notice it in the scenes of the village, in the description of the interior of the houses, in that "swarm" that fills the streets at dusk and is a measure of life, the night Renzo organizes a surprise marriage (chapter VII). Even the palace of Don Rodrigo, which is reached in a little road through the village of good, evil seems to see as the fruit of mediocrity, selfishness, opacity, intellectual, moral and static spiritual flatness. A guard of the massive building are two good and two carcasses of crows, while the barred windows, the howling of the hounds and the shouting of the guests in the banquet of the master are no less vulgar and feel of the villagers, "tall men [...] stocky and grim old, lost his fangs, [...] seemed always ready to grind their gums, women with certain male faces, and with some brawny arms [...]" (Ch. V). It is not really a description of landscape, but refers to an environment with a clear spiritual connotation and, therefore, is consistent with the way Manzoni means the landscape, reflecting element and to understand the changing human affairs. The landscape in "The Betrothed has a dual function: besides the usual location of the events of the novel, in this work it also serves to highlight and specify the moods, feelings and character of the various characters. The novel opens with a very effective presentation of the environment in which the events take place, the ability of Manzoni is also great in this case, the descriptions I'm so alive that it almost seems to be in those places, you can touch! In Chapter II the author plunges us immediately into the lives of his characters, describing the town's streets and houses where they live. Just in this chapter, the environment starts to become part of the psychological space of the novel is an example of a description of the walk of Don Abbondio that seeks to avoid the stones in its path, from these few words we can already understand the nature of the character. Continue reading Manzoni promises to us what will be one of the main themes of the second part of the novel, the plague: it is remarkable that accompanies the description of the landscape between the convent of Christopher Pescarenico Lucia's house. One of the most famous passages of the novel is "a farewell mountains" Lucia, away from his country on a boat, think back to the landscape that is moving away and, given the great sadness of Lucia, the environment also seems melancholy, sad and nostalgic , thus underlining the mood of Lucia. The description of the "palace of Don Rodrigo 'and' Castellaccio dell'Innominato" is absolutely essential to the psychological profile of two characters: the first you come across a bunch of little houses "within which you can see attached to the wall guns , trombones, hoes, rakes, straw hats, flasks, gas mantles and dust, which compared with muskets, sabers, and partisan Castellaccio are a bit of 'comic ridicoli.Il comparison between the two residences continues, in fact, the mansion, which sits on top of a hill, is reached by a winding lane, while the Castellaccio site straddles a narrow valley gloomy and terrible lies along a road at all elbows and gyrations. Finally worth noting is the description of nature that Manzoni is on his way from Milan to Bregamo Renzo, on his way he goes into a forest, orridus locus of literature of all time, the forest is like a metaphor for the situation in Renzo is located, is, in fact, the labyrinth of his character. The predominant characteristics of the forest are fear, confusion, abandonment, and these feelings are that Renzo evidence at this time. Analysis of landscape descriptions contained in the first section of "The Betrothed" In the novel, we can identify six descriptions of landscapes: - Chapter I: Opening of the event on Lake Como. - Chapter IV: the desolate landscape between the eyes of Christopher. - Chapter V: The palace of Don Rodrigo. - Chapter VI: Tonio's house. - Chapter VIII: Don Abbondio warns of scams in the Night and the country took to the streets. - Chapter VIII: the scene of farewell from the country. The opening chapter of the novel on the scene where the story begins: "That branch of Lake Como turns off to the south between two unbroken chains of mountains ...". The misery of the opening the novel is reduced to the pace a bit 'heavy and solemn of the very first lines: soon this description style rested, attentive, a little' minutes that had already been noted in the Introduction. But the topography of the scene of the Betrothed has a slow pace as you will not find anywhere else in the book. As the beginning of the novel may seem unattractive, and yet it is a double justification: the affectionate familiarity of the writer, for having spent so much time in those places, he saw so much of himself, and, behind her, the familiar Don Abbondio routine that until that fatal November 7, he had always quietly laid eyes on each corner of the landscape in his evening walk. These pages are already on life the last page of Don Abbondio, in a novel disturbances and changes everything. The construction period is remarkable for the harmonious distribution of each part clearly rejoining the end ("in new bays and new breasts") at the beginning ("all bays and inlets) and leaves the impression of a pictorial motif musically accomplished . Description of the walk routine Don Abbondio, immediately after the description of the landscape "after the time the road ran straight, maybe sixty steps, then split into two lanes, in the shape of a wye ...". Here the description of the walk will stop first in a very careful topographical description, portraiture onwards. The stop has a poetic reason: this is the scenario of the event capital of the life of Don Abbondio, which will remain in mind forever. Chapter IV of the opening chapter with the image of famine so common in those days: immediately notify the sad heart of the monk who observes the scene "The sky was clear: from hand to hand as the sun rose behind the mountain, saw his light go down the slopes. The scene was pleased, but every figure of a man who appeared, sad eyes and thought ...". The description of this autumn morning was the development of objective monitoring of a true painting. Manzoni who aims at nothing to put under the eyes, perhaps the landscape are the best example of Manzoni's conviction that art is the study and reproduction of the real. The passage of the men in the camps rested intonation marks the transition to the melancholy periods follow each other off, and pauses between one and another and internal, which give an impression of silence and pain. With this eye serene and sad Manzoni feel the sadness and oppression through the attitudes and the modulation of the period. The same effect has on Father Christopher: "These shows will increase at every step, the sadness of the friar ...". Chapter V Of Christopher arrives at the village of Don Rodrigo and notes the squalor: "At the foot of the hill lay a heap of huts, inhabited by farmers of Don Rodrigo. The people he met were tall men squat and surly, with a huge tuft on his head thrown back, old, lost his fangs, seemed ready to grind their gums ...". Throughout this description of the environment, is one of the old particularly the more effective is it to life with disgust to the wickedness of the elderly. In this landscape just by looking at the faces of peasants reflected the wickedness and violence of the followers of Don Rodrigo. "Roadsteads Davan and small windows on the street, closed disconnected from taxes, however, were guarded by huge iron gates. Two grand'avvoltoi, with wings outstretched, and co 'dangling skulls were nailed upon a swing of each door, and two good, one of the sur lie The benches were guarding ...". Manzoni does the portrait of Don Rodrigo, but this vile fortress it takes advantage the place: especially the door, marked by two vultures (and eagles) and watched by two good lie - a Joint threatening and vulgar, where you see the pride and arrogance and all its vileness -. But the picture is also necessary for himself, for that brush of large and powerful, for symmetry between the macabre and vulgar. Chapter VI, "and went even at the house of a certain Tonio, and found him in the kitchen, with one knee on the steps of the hearth, and, taking with one hand, the edge of a pot, put on hot ashes, squirming, rolling pin with curved , a small gray polenta ...". It is the largest domestic scene, or rather village, encountered so far. It takes place with a line affectionate, picturesque, but above all thoughtful. Describes all the details - Tonio attitude to the polenta-the liveliness of the figures - "three or four boys with his eyes" - the taste of the color reflected by the image of polenta bowl - and it seemed a small moon, in a large circle of vapors "-. But the picture is set to air time, and then soaked in sadness: like the beginning of the fourth chapter, which is too 'made it a particular scale but all veiled in melancholy. They are one family in an interior, the other in the open countryside, the reflections of poverty of the century. The step "But there was gaiety. ... Surviving" has the same pitch of the sections of Chapter IV "The scene was pleased, but every figure of a man who appeared, sad thought." In these passages we find quell'intonazione of melancholy and meditative collection that comes back every time the Manzoni trials must stop on or about the evils of men. Chapter VII "Ton ton ton, peasants sat up in bed, the young men lying on the barn, listening, to raise him. Many women advice, please their husbands, not to move, let go of others." The scene opens up and gets crowded, very fast, the rhythm changes. Here too, a lively sense of village life: young people in the barn, their husbands in bed, the more daring with pitchforks and muskets. And, together, a psychology quick but prudent, matching the excitement of the scene: the women fearful, the cowards who seem complacent. "And the moon, entering through the aperture, illuminated the pale face and silver beard of Father Christopher, who was standing there on leave ...". The moon provides the Manzoni in this chapter, the fundamental justification for the dominant peace disturbed, inspired by the paintings of charm (even in the face of Christopher soaked lunar pallor) and pensive sadness, and ultimately remain the single, solitary, sovereign note the landscape, to stretch his silence on the whole, accompanied by his melancholy that of the young fugitive that placed the arm on the side of the boat, resting his forehead on his arm, as if to sleep, crying secretly. "The lake lay smooth and flat, and it would have seemed still, if it was not the slight flicker and the swaying of the moon that reflects cielo.Si distinguished from the villages, houses, huts ...". This page Adda and a subdued harmony of sounds and colors: it is an impression of silence and slow, melancholy peace. Everything seems to translation of reality into words: the usual Manzoni, always true to the usual precision that closes the gap seems to sentimentality and lets talk about things. "The palace of Don Rodrigo." Adage, of course, the reason he approached the soul of the protagonist. The passengers are silent, after so many fears, but they are with the head turned back, and watch the mountains and the country. The night is clear, everything is different, and thought, without words, running on the places from which came the story: the palace of Don Rodrigo, who still seems to threaten, and so on, with a sweetness and sadness growing in the village the log cabin, the dense foliage of the fig tree and the window of the room where Lucy was going to marry. Underneath everything there is a note of pain that continues in the attitude of final Lucia - put the arm on the side - until they discover only two words the feeling: and wept secretly. The words of farewell do not belong to Lucy, but the pace is his, his soul pure and simple, serene and sad but resigned, and his is the trepidation of the unknown and the promise of religious sigh. It is remarkable how Manzoni succeed, with a landscape, to communicate to the reader's feelings and visual details as if he were right there to observe the sad scene of poverty and famine with between Christopher in the fourth chapter, or on the edge of lake, a spectator of the departure of Lucy from her country. Is not limited to make a careful description of the eyes, but adds adjectives or words that show the predominant feeling in the scene. In this study the true there is something "holy." Key steps in the landscape, at first glance, it looks home but implies a simple soul and higher: maintaining a precise design, free from flourishes (as noted in the Introduction), highlights the feelings of the characters in the background of nature, which always seems in harmony with their thoughts.
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