The Innocents Abroad · Chapter
XXII explained
The narrator describes his arrival in Venice by gondola, contrasting his romantic expectations with the gritty reality.
What happens
The narrator describes his arrival in Venice by gondola, contrasting his romantic expectations with the gritty reality. He explores the Ducal Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Lions' Mouths, and the Cathedral of St. Mark, reflecting on Venice's glorious past and its present decay. The chapter includes a legend about the theft of St. Mark's bones.
Themes in this chapter
The Past vs. the Present
The narrator contrasts Venice's glorious past as a powerful republic with its current state of decay, poverty, and insignificance.
Satire of Tourism
The narrator's romantic expectations of the gondola and gondolier are humorously shattered by the reality of a hearse-like boat and a ragged singer.
Religion and Hypocrisy
The legend of St. Mark's bones being smuggled in lard to evade Muslim customs highlights religious deception and the lengths taken for relics.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Describes his disillusionment with the gondola and gondolier, and his tour of Venetian landmarks.
- Jack
Implied as part of the group; the narrator addresses 'Roderigo Gonzales Michelangelo' as a gondolier, but Jack is not directly mentioned.
- The Doctor
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
- Mr. Blucher
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
- Dan
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
- Young George
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
Key passages
“In the treacherous sunlight we see Venice decayed, forlorn, poverty-stricken, and commerceless—forgotten and utterly insignificant. But in the moonlight, her fourteen centuries of greatness fling their glories about her, and once more is she the princeliest among the nations of the earth.”
By day, Venice appears ruined and forgotten, but by moonlight, its historic grandeur is revived.
Highlights the contrast between present decay and past glory.
“I began to feel that the old Venice of song and story had departed forever. But I was too hasty. In a few minutes we swept gracefully out into the Grand Canal, and under the mellow moonlight the Venice of poetry and romance stood revealed.”
The narrator initially thinks the romantic Venice is gone, but soon sees its beauty by moonlight.
Shows the narrator's shifting perception of Venice.
“The religion of Muhammad causes its devotees to abhor anything that is in the nature of pork, and so when the Christian was stopped by the officers at the gates of the city, they only glanced once into his precious baskets, then turned up their noses at the unholy lard, and let him go.”
Muslim guards, disgusted by pork, did not inspect the lard-filled baskets containing St. Mark's bones.
Describes the clever ruse used to smuggle the relics.