The relationship between the Marquis de Mazzini and his wife Maria de Vellorno is volatile, to say the least. They are both people driven by their uncontrollable passions. The Marquis, a haughty and prideful man, is the head patriarch of the castle. He is described as having "unlimited power of life and death in his own territories" by both his son and his first wife. Yet despite his seemingly unlimited power we are told in the first page that the Marquis is enslaved by his wife, "...he was governed by his wife. His passions were vehement, and she had the address to bend them to her own purpose; and so well to conceal her influence, that he thought himself most independent when he was most enslaved."
Throughout the book we see that the Marchioness is the one behind all of vital decisions that the Marquis makes. In fact, I would go as far as to say that all the major conflicts in the novel have their root in the Marchioness. She is the one who gave the Marquis the idea to marry Julia to the Duke du Luovo, she is the one who incensed the Marquis passion to scour the earth in search of Julia, and despite her ignorance of the first Marchioness's imprisonment, Maria is the one who drove the Marquis to attempt the murder Julia's mother by insulting his manhood and coercing him to act. (Radcliffe 184) Her unlimited control over the Marquis gives her incredible power. She is his master.
Yet despite her power and influence, she is still a woman living in a deeply patriarchal society. She only has power through her husband. Without him she has very little power to do anything. We have already discussed in class how, in the society described in Radcliffe's novel, the options that women have to choose from are dismal and limited: you get married, you get yourself to a nunnery, or you die. The second the Marquis loses favor with her, she becomes nothing. She becomes an object fit to be locked away in the deepest darkest cell in the castle of the Marquis. The fate of his first wife is all the evidence we need for that.
This is Maria's struggle: the classic Hegelian struggle to be recognized as more than just an object for the Marquis's amusement. Maria is nothing like the Marquis's first wife. In fact she is initially described as being "of a character very opposite to her predecessor." (1) Of course that means that Maria does not have the benign, virtuous character of the first Marchioness, but it also means that Maria does not have her "benign and susceptible nature." Maria is a woman of "infinite art, devoted to pleasure, and of an unconquerable spirit." She is a woman with a very strong sense of self. She knows what she wants, has the intelligence and cunning to get it, and she has the will to do whatever it takes to get it. Maria is good at what she does. She achieves agency for herself, she has the Marquis wrapped around her finger, and the Marquis is completely oblivious.
But her position is still very precarious. Like I mentioned before the day the Marquis decides he doesn't want her anymore is the day Maria loses all her agency and power. Maria must know this, yet she still decides to do all sorts of activities with various young cavaliers.
Why does she risk this? She knows the kind of man the Marquis is, why would she risk her life like that? Maria de Vellorno is a woman of pleasure. She does what she wants, and doing what she wants is what gives her agency. It's what makes her more than just arm candy for the Marquis. A life where she can't indulge every passion she has is not a life worth living. Also she must have been sure that the Marquis would never suspect. Not because she took every precaution possible, but because Maria knows exactly how entangled the Marquis is in her web. Her confidence is not unfounded as we see in the end of the novel.
The Marquis despite his pride and haughty manliness is psychologically dependent on Maria. The Marquis has committed horrible crimes for the sake of her. Losing her would mean that it was all for nothing. Even when the Marquis knows without a doubt that Maria is being unfaithful he just can't bring himself to get rid of her, "It seemed as if his desire of her affection increased with his knowledge of the loss of it; and the very circumstance which should have roused his aversion, by a strange perversity of disposition, appeared to heighten his passion, and to make him think it impossible he could exist without her" (187)
The Marquis built his entire world around Maria, and conversely Maria built her whole world around the power that the Marquis gave her. Both of those worlds were built on shaky foundations, and when the storm came through they shattered with great violence. The Marquis threatened Maria with "a formal separation" (192) and this is what ultimately drove her to suicide. This formal separation would take away all of Maria's power and agency. She couldn't live like that, but she couldn't let the Marquis "triumph." She writes in her suicide note, "But the triumph shall no longer be yours--the draught you have drank was given by the hand of the injured."
The Marquis is the one with the power of life and death in his dominions, but it was Maria de Vellorno who sentenced him to die.
Discussion Questions:
To what extent can the character of Maria de Vellorno be viewed as something more than a villain/vixen? Is there a way she can be read as a tragic hero?
If Maria had not poisoned the Marquis, what do you think the Marquis would have done about Maria's infidelity?
Why did Maria commit suicide in the way that she did? Why the poignard to the heart? Why not poison?
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