The Mysteries of Udolpho · Chapter
LV explained
Emily learns of her inheritance from the late Marchioness de Villeroi and receives the full history of Laurentini di Udolpho, whose unchecked passions led her to crime and lifelong penance.
What happens
Emily learns of her inheritance from the late Marchioness de Villeroi and receives the full history of Laurentini di Udolpho, whose unchecked passions led her to crime and lifelong penance. The chapter also resolves Emily's doubts about her parentage and explains the mysterious image she discovered in the west chamber.
Themes in this chapter
Grief and Melancholy
Emily's sorrow for the untimely death of her aunt, the Marchioness, and the tragic history of Laurentini pervade the chapter.
The Supernatural and the Unknown
The mysterious image in the west chamber, mistaken for a corpse, and the legend of the disappearing lady contribute to the Gothic atmosphere.
Female Agency and Vulnerability
Laurentini's story illustrates both the agency of a passionate woman and her vulnerability to destructive emotions and societal constraints.
Characters to notice
- Emily St. Aubert
Receives news of her inheritance and the truth about her family; is released from painful conjectures about her birth.
- Laurentini
Her full history is recounted: heiress of Udolpho, lover of the Marquis de Villeroi, her descent into crime, and her eventual death and confession.
- Marquis de Villeroi
Laurentini's lover who ultimately married the Marchioness de Villeroi; his passion for Laurentini returned upon her arrival in France.
- Marchioness de Villeroi
Revealed to be the sister of St. Aubert; her untimely death is lamented, and her relationship to Emily is clarified.
- St. Aubert
His mysterious attachment to the Marchioness is explained; he had requested that Emily remain ignorant of their relationship.
- Montoni
Mentioned as a relative of Laurentini who renewed addresses to her; Emily had suspected him of murdering Laurentini.
Key passages
“But in these cases, We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: thus even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips.”
In such matters, we are judged in this life; we teach violent lessons that eventually turn against us, as justice forces us to drink from the same poisoned cup we prepared for others.
The epigraph from Macbeth sets the theme of retributive justice that echoes in Laurentini's story.
“It was the first misfortune of her life, and that which led to all her succeeding misery, that the friends, who ought to have restrained her strong passions, and mildly instructed her in the art of governing them, nurtured them by early indulgence.”
The root of all her later suffering was that her guardians, instead of gently teaching her to control her passions, indulged them from the start.
This explains the origin of Laurentini's tragic character.
“The ceremony of the veil, however, and the circumstance of the doors having been left open, even for a moment, had occasioned her much wonder and some doubts; but these were not sufficient to overcome her suspicion of Montoni; and it was the dread of his terrible vengeance, that had sealed her lips in silence, concerning what she had seen in the west chamber.”
The ritual of the veil and the momentarily open doors puzzled Emily, but she still suspected Montoni of murder and kept silent out of fear of his revenge.
This clarifies Emily's earlier terror and her decision not to speak of the west chamber.
