Masters: The Italian

Italy in Anne Radcliffe's _The Italian_ is shown as this Immortally gothic place. Vivaldi is shown with intense romantic thoughts and feelings--in the way that his heart yearns and palpitating for Ellena after just seeing her at mass with her older mother--and the city of Naples itself reflects these emotions. The city space is shown as this bleak space filled with darkened corridors, overcast days, and filled with conspiracy. While this is signature to gothicism as a whole, the reason this text is set in Italy and reflects on Italy as a place and space is because of the reflection of the ancient, as we have said before. Mentions and reflections back to Naples as a kingdom and a power are constant, but the city itself is depicted as decrepit and stagnant. Once again, Italy is not shown as a space for the new and the kinetic, but one for the old and decrepit.