The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino: plot, book review, narrative techniques, analysis and main characters of the short novel.
Book card
The Cloven Viscount is a work by the famous writerItalo Calvino, published in 1952, the first chapter of the trilogy of booksOur Ancestors. Let’s see in detail the book sheet of this novel.
- Author : Italo Calvino
- Genre : short novel
- Year of publication : 1952
- Setting : Italy (Terralba) and Bohemia in the late 1600s
- Main theme : The theme of the double
Below you will find the plot, characters, narrative techniques and commentary of The Cloven Viscount.
Plot
The story tells of Viscount Medardo of Terralba , who goes to war against the Turks, together with his squire Curzio . During the war he is hit by a cannonball that splits him into two equal parts : a right and a left, one good and the other bad.
The bad guy returns to the village and spreads terror by condemning many innocent people to the gallows, burning houses and woods, making even the people closest to him suffer, such as his father, Aiolfo, who he kills, and the Nurse, Sebastiana, who he sends to “Pratofungo”, the city where all the lepers were locked up, even though she was not ill.
But suddenly the second half of the Viscount also appears: the good part that wanders around doing good to everyone, which tries to repair, where possible, the damage caused by his other half .
At this point the people of the village begin to get bored of both halves, since they have to hide from the evil half, at the same time, from the good half because it entertained them with long and boring sermons. As if that were not enough, the two halves fall in love with the same woman, Isabella , who however does not know who to choose, since she immediately realizes that the two halves are one too cruel, the other too good. Precisely because of this woman, in fact, the two halves face each other in a duel during which both are injured at the point of their separation and are sewn back together by Dr. Trelaugway; now Isabella can finally get married, and everything returns to normal, unlike the Viscount who, aware of all the sides of his character, now proves to be wiser and more thoughtful.
Personages
Throughout the novel it is pleasant to note that almost all the characters express a certain underlying ambiguity , they are incomplete, strange, but sincere: the cowardly and inept doctor Trelawney , genius of tressette, the lepers of Pratofungo , poor, dying, but capable of continuous celebrations that often lead to real orgies, master Pietrochiodo , an honest and benevolent man but inventor of cruel instruments of torture and death.
The protagonist is Viscount Medardo who, at the same time, plays the role of antagonist, another very important character is the nurse Sebastiana who plays the role of “mother” scolding both halves.
Narrative techniques
The events are presented in chronological order although flashbacks appear many times, used to underline the story of one or more characters within the story; the narration prevails in the text. The narration is unlikely; in fact, the meaning stands out. The narrator is internal, he corresponds to the protagonist’s nephew even if he remains indifferent to the main events and the protagonist’s actions, in fact the point of view from which he exposes the story is objective and extraneous; almost as if the narrator were external.
The author’s thoughts and evaluations are revealed through the characters’ thoughts, words and actions. Parataxis prevails in the text , in fact the progression of the actions is reported quickly with no details.
The linguistic register is medium or common , in fact the text is particularly simple and concise; the adjectives are scarce and with an absence of precise details, the rhetorical figures are many, starting from the protagonist. The author has written the text to entertain, to convince of an idea and induce us to reflect; on the incompleteness of man and to make us understand that each of us is divided into two parts, but each part does not make sense alone.
Comment
The author wanted to entertain the reader and himself with this book . The theme of the man cut in two was very significant for him because we all feel incomplete in some way, we realize one part of ourselves and not the other; He wanted to create the maximum contrast between one part and the other by making one good and the other bad. In fact, the story is based on a series of surprise effects: that instead of an internal viscount, a half and very cruel one returns, and the fact that at a certain point an absolutely good viscount was discovered instead of the bad one created another surprise effect; that these two halves were equally unbearable, the good and the bad, was a significant comic effect .
This book is very funny, but a little unreal. Reading it was fun in some parts, very boring in others. Its meaning, on the contrary, is very realistic: the image of a man cut in two is very touching , deep down we all feel incomplete, sometimes we only know half of what we are, sometimes the “other half” of us scares us, worries us. Even our dearest friends do not know us completely, they ignore half of us and this makes us helpless. Sometimes we turn against ourselves as happens in the book, but in the end, when we become aware of both halves, we realize that they all live in symbiosis with each other and one half needs the other: in fact in the book the story ends with the reunion of the two halves.