Voto:
I, who am Martina1994, can't stand "The Betrothed", on the other hand, absolutely don't want to be involved. When I caught a glimpse of the review title in the Home, I thought I would find a new, innovative, witty analysis (And anyway, regardless of the results, I would have rewarded the audacity of the choice). The story of the decalogue is then truly absurd:
1. Totally unrealistic story: Perhaps, dear Martina1994, you donât know that the structure upon which Manzoni elaborated his masterpiece (Because "The Betrothed" is a masterpiece) takes inspiration from the erotic novels of the Hellenistic period, in which the two protagonist lovers are separated by fate and only after long and various adventures do they manage to fulfill their dream. If an illustrious literary precedent doesnât seem sufficient to revise that idiocy, just consider that there are plenty of novels with unrealistic stories, as you say; what matters is that they are believable. You seem unrealistic, rather. If you were Don Rodrigo, would you have directly killed Renzo? Well done! You spill blood unnecessarily when it would just take threatening a priest.
2. Very stereotypical idea of women: aside from the fact that it would be "stereotyped", at most, but not just stereotype. Between 1827 and 1842 (the first and last editions of the novel), Italian women, somewhat illiterate, somewhat bigoted, somewhat rooted in traditional values, certainly couldnât be the ancestors of Thelma and Louise. The female characters are a reflection of society: the corrupt clergy, the simple girl from the countryside, etc., etc...
3. Simplistic and populist idea that the people, the poor, are oppressed by the rich and powerful: I don't quite understand what you mean with this sentence, or rather the entire period, but anyway, I don't believe itâs possible to jumble together in four lines the Manzoni - humble relationship, especially if the aim is to make cheap irony.
4. Unpleasant idea of the average man crushed by laws and the state organization...: the scene is deliberately comical. If you go reread the chapter, you will notice that Renzo swings the capons in his hands as if they were two shopping bags, which is impossible. Itâs called a sarcastic digression.
5a. Tedious events: doesnât even deserve to be commented on.
5b. It's not that to write a novel I have to necessarily include hundreds of pages â something that only the Russians do well: but what does that mean? The result of a literary analysis based on a quantitative dimension can only be a relatively indicative value, and prolixity is not a national prerogative. This is the ABC of reading.
6. As for Tolkien...: here you must have been completely out of your mind. Can you even imagine reading a nineteenth-century novel while viewing the characters through a modern lens? âGood Good, Evil Evilâ, and where do you place Don Abbondio? And Fra Cristoforo (Considering his past experiences)? And the Nun of Monza?
7. There is no gap between linguistic registers...: during that time, you should know, Italy did not have an official language (It wasnât even a unified state, let alone), or rather, it was considered a dead language, on par with Latin, used only for writing (for oral communication, there were dialects). Manzoni, with his continuous work of reprinting, sought to reorganize the language used in the novel, bringing it closer to the Florentine dialect, from the 1300s, the origin point of Italian (Risciacquatura in Arno...ever heard of it?). In this way, he would have dethroned the more elevated forms of the language making the reading more accessible to everyone. Itâs obvious that nowadays the Italian of "The Betrothed" is totally different from our Italian. You could have mentioned the linguistic controversies between Manzoni and Ascoli, if you really wanted to get your hands dirty with such a thorny subject...
8. The role of religion...: does the divine interference in human affairs seem like a weak poin
