The Monk; a Romance, Matthew Gregory Lewis

The Monk; a Romance, written by Matthew Gregory Lewis, is available freely on Gutenberg.org and Amazon.com. The Amazon version is slightly better, as the pages are numbered making it easier to reference.

My notes following are taken as I read. I find doing so sometimes helps me get the story straight. This story takes place in an unfamiliar setting, both time and space. It's taking a bit of an effort to clarify some events and twists as they evolve.

The setting is that of Spain. Spain had been for awhile a Muslim nation. The temporal setting is after Christianity had begun to retake the country. Thus, Antonia, one of the principal characters in this temptation of a monk, wears a veil that covers her face. She seeks to remain veiled, but is nearly stripped of it by a man only just introduced:

"... as yet (you) are unacquainted with our customs, that you continue to wear your veil..." 

At the same time He advanced his hand towards the Gauze: The Lady raised hers to prevent him. (p. 11)

She would have resisted his aggressive behavior, if not for her aunt who seemed to quite dislike her niece.

He is successful in petitioning Antonia's aunt to allow him to disrobe her of her veil. The description of her face begins her role as a seductress. "(her face) was rather bewitching than beautiful." (p. 12) She is disconnected from the Catholic religion, as she counts the rosary beads, but that she doesn't really know what to do with them.

When her aunt, Leonella, starts to describe the other principal character, the Monk, Ambrosio, Abbot of the Capuchins, she says of him that he treats men and women as if they are the same gender, and that he is chaste. When Antonia asks, since she has these same qualities, if she is then a saint, she is lectured upon and told that men and women are not the same. This is a double standard. I don't know if the author is either making fun of or chastising Antonia, or consciously revealing the double standard and criticizing it.

Now I am just about at the half way point of the novel. The events leading up to Agnes' being in a convent she had no taste for are detailed. The unhappy couple who love each other are ill fated at every turn: her aunt falls in love with Lorenzo, who then tries to clear up the confusion (for the aunt thought him in love with her), but instead invites the wrath of a woman scorned. Lorenzo and Agnes plot together to make an escape at night, using a costume in the likeness of a cursed spirit called the Bleeding Nun. However, it is not the nun's likeness that enters the coach, but rather the nun herself. Thinking he is speaking to Agnes, he swears himself to her. But the swearing forces him to take on the burden of breaking the Bleeding Nun's curse. He is fortunate that another famous phantom, the Wandering Jew, cursed for his part in the crucifixion of Jesus to wander forever, looking to help people. Agnes, thinking Lorenzo has forsaken her, agrees to become a nun.

When Lorenzo is finally able to discover Agnes, he essentially rapes her, forcing her to try to flee the convent. However, the Prioress, Mother St. Agatha, refuses to part with Agnes, even after receiving a letter from the pope demanding her release.

The relationship between Matilda and Ambrosio is the most interesting. She is, in essence, the destroyer of Ambrosio as the 'perfect monk.' She seduces him perfectly. After their first consummation of lust, Matthew Lewis first writes,

"... Unnatural were your vows of Celibacy; Man was not created for such a state; And were Love a crime, God never would have made it so sweet, so irresistible!" (p. 191)

And then,

...the fair Wanton put every invention of lust in practice, every refinement in the art of pleasure which might heighten the bliss of her possession... (p. 192)

But whether Matilda is there merely to seduce the Monk or is in fact smitten with him, it is not yet 100% clear. This passage suggests that she believes in the moment without a care about the moments after death:

"I will think my sacrifice scarcely worthy to purchase your possession, and remember that a moment past (passed) in your arms in this world o'er-pays an age of punishment in the next." (p. 192)

So, did she seduce him simply for the purpose of torment? Is she some kind of temptress who lives to destroy? Or is she simply a fool in love? However, at last she reveals that her seduction of the monk is merely a ploy to gain entrance into "...the burying-ground at midnight." (p. 192)

Some of the phrases that Matthew Lewis uses are brilliant, and as true today as they were when he wrote them more than three centuries ago. He, alongside Matilda, in their secret entrance to the 'burying-ground,' hide when the prioress makes her conversation with an elder nun about the situation with Agnes. She intends on punishing Agnes to the full extent she can for embarassing her in front of Ambrosio. But now, because of his own transgression,

"...thunder out menaces against the errors of others, the better to conceal your own." (p. 197)

Ambrosio's character, as a child, was quite good. Lewis writes that it was the
education of the monks which perverted him. He is described as being 'pure,' but in the darker, puritanical way which is merciless. He is 30, and already severe. So, it is hard to really know how much Matilda's seduction affected his personality. However, it certainly has changed in its perversity.

He attempts to seduce Antonia, who is painted as a pure character. She is very young, and is unable to see Ambrosio as a threat. However, when alone with her, he attempts to rape her. Elvira, the mother, had caught on to his attempts at seduction, and was able to interrupt his attempt on Antonia's virginity before he had done much damage. She would expose his attempt to the public, but is too pragmatic to think that it would do anything but cause her and her daughter much pain and offer little threat to Ambrosio as a monk of great repute.

Ambrosio stops at nothing to rape Antonia. He kills Elvira as she witnesses his attempt on Antonia's rape. He then poisons Antonia, to rape later at his leisure in the sepulcher under the convent. He ultimately succeeds in raping her. The perspective on Antonia here is interesting. Lewis writes about how she is ruined in several ways:

Her peace of mind was lost, her honour irreparably ruined. She was cut off for ever from society, nor dared He give her back to it... She could never hope to be creditably established; She would be marked with infamy, and condemned to sorrow and solitude for the remainder of her existence... (Permanently imprisoning her) is the only means to prevent Antonia from publishing his guilt and her own infamy. (my Italics added for emphasis.) (p. 327)

She nearly effects an escape, but is murdered by Ambrosio even on the point of her rescue. The next lines are equally shocking.

She told him that had She still been undefiled She might have lamented the loss of life; But that deprived of honour and branded with shame, Death was to her a blessing: She could not have been his Wife, and that hope being denied her, She resigned herself to the Grave without one sigh of regret.

What a terrible double punishment. Not only is the raped a victim of the rapist, but she is also vilified by her culture.

This vilification of the victims of rape are also brought up through the story of Agnes. She suffers horrifically for trying to escape the convent. She's thrown into a dungeon, and then rescued by her brother. But when it comes to her rape, she is the one who must suffer:

He (Raymond) once conquered my virtue... I have been frail and full of error... my conduct has been highly blameable.

The ending of the book is quite a horror. At the last moment of the evil Monk's release from the inquisitors, Satan manages to convince Ambrosio to sign his soul over. Satan frees him from the prison, then drops him onto the mountains to die a long and lingering death (7 days) followed by an eternity of hell. The end for him is horrific.

This book is fantastic. It's probably the best book I've read this year and maybe better than anything in the past few years. If you're looking for a good Gothic horror, then this is the right book for you.