The Monk
There seemed
to have been a wave of dark or gothic literature around the end of the eighteenth
century and likely into the beginning of the nineteenth century, ranging from
the romantic to the macabre and outright disgusting stuff. Whether this was
inspired by the horrors of the French revolution or some other underlying and
earlier reason I do not know, but the book List editors certainly have an
affinity for these stories.
Matthew
Lewis’ “The Monk” is, as I understand it, a highly influential work that tapped
into this stream. From the basic idea that power and righteousness corrupt, he wrote
the twin stories of two girls who falls into the clutches of corrupt monastic
rulers. Or, as considered from the other side of the table, of the fall from grace
of people who were supposed to be above these things, corrupted by power and
temptation.
One story
is about Raymond, Agnes and the prioress of the convent of St. Clare. We meet
them while she is a nun and he is attempting some covert communication with
her. In flashback we get the story how he was travelling in Germany incognito
(he is the son of a Marquis in Spain) where he meets and fall in love with
Agnes, a guest at the castle Lindenburg. Unfortunately, the baroness of the
castle, Agnes’ aunt, is deeply jealous, thinking she should get his attentions.
Raymond is kicked out and Agnes comes up with a scheme to pretend to be a
renowned ghost to escape with Raymond. The real ghost gets in the way, Raymond
disappears and Agnes, believing him dead, joins a convent. Back in Madrid, when
they are reunited, they start a clandestine affair, Agnes gets pregnant and the
prioress, massively incensed by this violation of rules, confines her to die in
the dungeons of the convent.
The second
story concerns Antonia, Lorenzo and the abbot of the Capuchin monastery,
Ambrosio. In this story Lorenzo, a nobleman, is infatuated by the pretty but
demure Antonia. Antonia’s father was of nobility (and related to Raymond) but
disowned by his family and Antonia’s mother is convinced that so uneven a match
will not end well. At the monastery Ambrosia is a super righteous monk who is
slowly being led into temptation. A young novice he cares a lot about, Rosario,
turns out to be a woman, Matilda, and she becomes the instrument to gradually
corrupt the Monk. They start an illicit affair, but eventually he tires from it
and instead turns his attention on the pretty Antonia. Matilda seems more
interested in turning the monk onto the dark path than having an actual
relationship and it becomes increasingly clear she has access to dark powers.
With these Ambrosia manages to get Antonia into his clutches, hiding her away
in the dungeon. Will Lorenzo get to her and his sister Agnes in time?
Lewis was
very young when he wrote “The Monk” and I could tell how it is driven by his
urge to tell a story. It is quickly paced and covers a lot of ground in relatively
few pages, but it is also rambling in the sense that Lewis cannot decide
exactly what story he wants to focus on and from what perspective and this
gives it an almost anthology quality. There is a very important part about Ambrosia’s
decent from holier than thou to be entirely in the thrall of sexual desires,
ready to sacrifice every principle to satiate it. Antonia’s story is of course
linked to it because she is his victim, but Lorenzo, the hero of the story, is
largely relegated to an impotent observer and much less interesting to Lewis.
The story of Agnes, Raymond and the prioress is, although the characters and linked
to the first story, almost tangential to it with very little connection. It is
a detour, an interesting one, but also so massive and different that it removes
the focus from Ambrosia. I think Lewis let himself get carried away and he
struggled to tie the stories together.
Thematically
this is an attack on the hypocrisy of the righteous. That the vanity of religion
corrupts and that we are not to trust those. It does feel a bit thin, though,
and the real driver seems to me to be a desire to write a luscious and macabre
story with ghosts, sorcery, pretty girls and evil people of power.
Reading up
on the story before going in, I had the impression it would be way darker,
maybe down the road of de Sade, but in that sense, I was happily disappointed.
Sure, there is both rape and murder, but much less of it than I was led to expect,
and it is not dwelling on it with sadistic glee.
The final
verdict is that it is an easier and more entertaining book to read than expected
but also a story strangely out of focus and unpolished. It was a bit hit in its
time, but I frankly cannot see why people got so worked up on it.
