Sunday 17 April 2011

'The Monk' Gothic Novel

This story came to my attention just the other day during a discussion with a friend. I have only briefly taken a look into the story and its various themes but there is one thing that stands quite clear over anything else, something that would help my own story. The main character, Ambrosio, is a devoted monk who falls from grace as he is undone by the lust for his pupil Matilda (a woman disguised as monk). She is forever present, always on his shoulder pushing him slightly to do her bidding or break his morals, but the process is subtly done and the reader is unsure whether to trust her or not.

I think what's relevant in my story is to not allow the viewer to trust the nymph when she appears on screen during the early scenes. I want them to ask questions about her purpose, her agenda. Even before hearing about 'The Monk' I did want to create the same sense of doubt but every little helps and becoming aware of this story can only help towards my final piece.

There is a film apparently and I intend to watch it sometime in the near future.

Here is a short passage about the plot line;

The story concerns Ambrosio - a pious, well-respected monk in Spain - and his violent downfall. He is undone by carnal lust for his pupil, a woman disguised as a monk (Matilda), who tempts him to transgress, and, once satisfied by her, is overcome with desire for the innocent Antonia. Using magic spells, Matilda aids him in seducing Antonia, whom he later rapes and kills. Matilda is eventually revealed as an instrument of Satan in female form, who has orchestrated Ambrosio's downfall from the start. In the middle of telling this story, Lewis frequently makes further digressions, which serve to heighten the Gothic atmosphere of the tale while doing little to move along the main plot. A lengthy story about a "Bleeding Nun" is told, and many incidental verses are introduced. A second romance, between Lorenzo and Antonia, also gives way to a tale of Lorenzo's sister being tortured by hypocritical nuns (as a result of a third romantic plot). Eventually, the story catches back up with Ambrosio, and in several pages of impassioned prose, Ambrosio is delivered into the hands of the Inquisitor; he escapes by selling his soul to the devil for his deliverance from the death sentence which awaits him. The story ends with the devil preventing Ambrosio's attempted final repentance, and the sinful monk's prolonged torturous death. Ambrosio finds out by the devil that the woman that he had raped and killed, Antonia, was indeed his sister.

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