Mastro -Don Gesualdo – Wikipedia

Mastro-Don Gesualdo
Author	Giovanni Verga
1st ed. Original
Type	novel
Original language	Italian
Setting	Vizzini, Sicily
Protagonists	Gesualdo Motta
Co -star	Bianca given
Other characters	Isabella Motta-Trao, The Duke of Leyra, Diego Trao, Fernando Trao, Corrado La Gurna, Fifì Margarone, Ninì Rubiera, Diodata, Marianna Sguanci, Nanni L’Orbo
Series	The twenty
Preceded by	I Malavoglia
Followed by	The Duchess of Loyra
Change data on wikidata · Manual

Mastro-Don Gesualdo It is a novel by Giovanni Verga, published in 1889. The story of the homonymous protagonist narrates and is set in Vizzini, in Sicily, in the first half of the nineteenth century in the Risorgimento period.

Second novel of the cycle of the losers , is the result of a long drafting labor that lasted eight years. The first sketches date back to 1881-1882, immediately after the publication of I Malavoglia . Mastro-Don Gesualdo He came out of episodes on the New anthology From 1 July to 16 December 1888 and then in volume at the Treves publisher, in 1889, but dated 1890. Unlike de I Malavoglia , Mastro-Don Gesualdo He was welcomed positively.

The linguistic operation conducted by the writer is in this particularly complex novel due to the interogeneity of the social classes represented, each bearer of a lexicon.

The processing of the work was philologically reconstructed by Carla Riccardi, also curator of the national edition of the works of Giovanni Verga. The philology welcomed the text as definitive as it appears in the manuscript sent to the typography and accompanied it of a rich genetic apparatus in which, however, some evolutionary variants are also present.

The novel is divided into 4 parts, each of which is divided in turn into chapters.

Part one [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

None I. A fire bursts into the palace owned by the trao, a fallen noble family, consisting of three brothers: Don Diego (Tisi patient), Don Ferdinando and Woman Bianca. People who have criticism for the conditions in which they have reduced; In fact, its components did not want to change lifestyle and start working, activity extraneous to their social class.

The brothers prefer to live the relatives of the relatives, who also provide food and clothes for Bianca. When the fire breaks out, Bianca is located in its bedroom with Ninì Rubiera , his cousin and lover. The two are discovered by Don Diego.

Cap II. Don Diego, the following day, goes to the Palazzo della Cugina Rubiera to tell her what she discovered, with the intention of combining a wedding. The Baroness Rubiera, however, does not want to know how to get the wealthy son with Bianca, since without dowry, and promises that he will commit himself to finding a husband at his height that we will see later to be Gesualdo Motta. Don Ferdinand is considered more stupid than Don Diego; The latter is obsessed with the cards of the dispute, that is, the documentation of a secular judicial dispute that opposes the noble transfers to the crown of Spain. When that dispute is won, it will yield an immense wealth to their family. Meanwhile, the protagonist, Don Gesualdo Motta, has put himself in the head to compete for the auction for the Gabella delle Terre, a fact that infuriates Baron Zacco, because these lands have been assigned to his family for generations.

Div. 3. The feast of San Gregorio Magno takes place; The cousin Marianna Scanci organized a reception in her home, to which the flower of the nobility rushed. Mastro-Don Gesualdo also goes to the party, which is made to accommodate on the balcony of the alley, reserved for less prestigious guests and poor relatives, where Don Ferdinando and White Woman were also sitting. At the party, the guests speak of the wedding of Bianca and Gesualdo despite being cuckold and criticize the thing for the lower social condition of him, indignant to not have been informed of anything, despite being relatives of Bianca. In addition to Bianca’s wedding, the one of Ninì Rubiera with Fifì Margarone is also planning.
Gesualdo and Baroness Rubiera have become business partners to be able to grab the lands of the Municipality: he provides capital, she is the prestigious name. At one point white and Ninì meet and manage to discuss alone on the balcony. Bianca asks him for clarity on future prospects, but he does not intend to oppose the mother, who does not consent to their marriage. Then clarifies what weddings will take place, however: he will marry Fifì Margarone, she Mastro-Don Gesualdo (but the second has not yet been officially combined). Bianca is desperate; He accepts the will of the mother and resign himself to marrying a woman he does not love, despite the retaliation that he could adopt against him would not be many (he is the only child and the inheritance would be fully due to him): he just fears that he can deny him the money, as long as it is alive. The aunt Sganci asks Gesualdo to accompany the trao at home so that he has the first opportunity to meet his white nephew. The Marquis Limoli, an uncle of the girl, tries to convince her that it is a good party because she has a lot of money; The canon Lupi does the same with Gesualdo, saying that the marriage with the woman will introduce him to good society and thus achieve the noble title.

Chap. IV Gesualdo’s diligence is described in carrying out his work and checking that of others. Gesualdo does not stop in front of any difficulty and works strenuously in all climatic condition. All the messages of relatives fall on his shoulders, he is the only one who struggles and keeps everyone. Gesualdo constantly controls its properties and that the laborers work the earth, but often finds them idle, lying on rest from the sun. Gesualdo lives with the humble serveta diata, complacent and helpful, secretly in love with man. It is told how Gesualdo started out of nowhere and with alacrity he managed to create his fortune and accumulate his “stuff”; In fact, he is a man who has made himself ( Man of his fortune ). The first disagreements are then told with the father, when to want to economically help the family goes to work as a laborer. All its labors and sacrifices are rewarded because Gesualdo has the brain for business and therefore manages to become master of multiple land itself. One day Gesualdo communicates to Diodata who will soon take wife; She is shocked by the news also because it fears for the fate that the children had from him will have and abandoned to the orphanage.

Cap. V. His sister hope and brother -in -law Burgio speculate on business; Burgio always deals with investments that do not yield anything. The Holy brother lives on the shoulders of Gesualdo and his father, not wanting to be defrauded of his role as head of the family, combines only troubles with the business of his son, to whom the latter is always forced to remedy. The father feels depleted of his position within the family and therefore makes his head, ruins the business of his son, making him lose money. Due to a malversation of the father, a bridge collapsed and Gesualdo lost a deal. Under the push of this misfortune, he decides to marriage with Bianca proposed to him by the canonical Lupi.

Cap. VI. Bianca goes to the church to confess and there the sacristan Luca and the canon wolves exert psychological pressure about her about the marriage with Gesualdo. In the previous days he had presented the official proposal to his brothers, who, however, had not agreed and for this reason he goes to anger. Don Luca urged Woman Bianca to re -propose the issue of marriage to his brothers because he would be a business for his whole family, an opportunity not to be missed. In turn, Donna Marianna tries to convince Ferdinand and Diego who are also left to give their sister to one like Gesualdo. Their nobility derives from the blood, so they repudiate the idea of ​​bringing the Mastro into their family. In the end, however, resigned, they say Bianca to do what she wants. She decides to marry not for the combined trouble with the cousin, but to get out of the economic restrictions in which the family pours.

Head. ARE YOU COMING. At their marriage he is no relative, nor of her because they do not approve, nor of him because they are ashamed of their condition as miserable. The few guests present at the next party seem interested only in grasping food and spreading the attitude of her brothers. Diodata is in love with Gesualdo but he combined a repairing wedding with Nanni the Orbo. Gesualdo deludes himself to be able to find a possible land with his wife (“the humble signs of deprivation that brought her closer to her”). The first wedding night is consumed. He is clumsy, he is almost afraid of touching her too because she remains rigid. This attitude announces their future incommunicability, the principle of a sad union.

Second part [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

None I. At the headquarters of the Municipality, the Gabella for the rent of the municipal lands takes place; There is a general parapiglia: everyone gets angry and beat themselves, except Gesualdo, who remains impassive because he knows he has the knife on the side of the handle and to be the smartest of all. Although he makes high offers, they try to make him give up the company first by proposing the concession of the money lost in the deposit of the collapsed bridge as long as he gives up the municipal lands to grab; It is then proposed that the lands are divided between him, the Baroness Rubiera and the Baron Zacco, who has been possession of it for generations. But Gesualdo does not even accept this proposal; He does not want to compromise because he wants the monopoly on the lands. He holds so much to win them also for a personal revenge against the new relatives for the affront immediately (marriage without his knowledge of repairer). His most bitter competitor is Baronello Rubiera, who is both avid and jealous towards Bianca’s husband. The marriage with the woman was a failure because he is still only against everyone, he did not get the support of the nobles by marrying it. Coming to the canon of the Carbonari revolutionary movements of Palermo, Gesualdo decides to join the Carboneria himself and indeed to try to take on the guide to make it pay for all the big pieces. Popular motion in the countryside leads to the claim of the lands by the “Villani”.

Head. II. The theme of the peasant revolt is expected; On the one hand the “villains”, unable to organize themselves and give themselves of the leaders, on the other the “gentlemen”, frightened by popular anger. But the popular ferment produced by the news of the Palermo political revolutions does not lead to the feared Jacquerie, on the contrary, the solidarity will strengthen among the landowners who forget their rivalry of “dogs and cats” to make a common front against the class enemy. In fact, the rioters meet during one night but at the first sign of danger they disperse and run away. According to Gesualdo, the political fervor of the “gentlemen” is only yet another attempt to cut the grass under the feet to each other and derives from the need to be on the right side, if the revolution was successful. In Gesualdo and in other owners, therefore, the interest in protecting one’s profits prevails.

Div. 3. He ends with the premature birth of Bianca who gives light Isabella, due to the blow for the loss of his brother Diego. The poor girl had been held in the dark about the degeneration of her illness. During the night Don Diego Morente was entrusted only to the chaperes of the Sagresano because because of the scuffles in the village, nobody had had the courage to leave the house. Diego dies between the indifference of relatives, none of whom would like to take on the costs of the funeral.

Chap. IV. Betrayed by the barber Mastro Titta, Ninì Rubiera sees the love letter addressed to Aglae, the first woman of a theater company, to his girlfriend Fifì. Aglae, who reads inside and outside the theater, is a shrewd woman who tries to obtain the greatest possible advantages from the charm she exerts on the provincials Vizzino, apparently unaware of the patrimonial failures that passion can cause. The
Malignity murmured at the theater by relatives and acquaintances on the paternity of Isabella have no real foundation and are yet another free act of hostility towards the master. After the family and white, Isabella is not able to fill the void of affections in which the protagonist moves.
The Baronello Rubiera to conquer Aglae, he sends them lycornies of all kinds, which together with his colleague consumes in the tavern. The two are ruffians. In the end Ninì manages to achieve its purpose, indebted to the neck; The Baroness having learned of this, cut the food. The canon Lupi intercedes for him at Gesualdo, trying to persuade him to make him a loan to heal the debts. Once the mother died, he will get the inheritance and as a galantuomo it is, the debt contracted with Gesualdo will extinguish.

Cap. V. Baroness Rubiera learns of the new lover of her son and of all the money he squandered for her, who is certainly not his, because the Baroness had forbidden him to have his inheritance. One morning an acquaintance called the Ciolla comes to visit her, putting her flea in the ear about the involvement of Gesualdo in the deal as a money lender. The Baroness Insospettita decides to go to the baptism of Isabella Trao, to find out more, but when he asks for explanations from Bianca first and then Gesualdo, they are denied them. At the ceremony the relatives of Gesualdo do not present themselves because they feel unworthy of the nobility. The woman is obsessed with the thought that her “stuff” is in imminent danger. Having granted the money to Ninì is a way for Gesualdo to take revenge on her. Due to all the worries, the woman is hit by a brain stroke that makes her paralyzed and unable to speak. Ninì then leaves the lover, he repeated and
He begins to take care of his mother tirelessly as if to atone for his fault. Now he is the one who has the administration of the house and for the inert and silent mother is a pain every time the son takes the keys of the warehouses, containing his possessions.
For the sudden illness he did not have time to disinherit his son as he would have been in his intentions. The only reason that Ninì leaves Aglae is because he learned that the mother intended to call the notary and therefore for fear of losing the inheritance. By taking care of the mother, the boy deteriorates and no longer takes care of.

Third part [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

None I. We talk about Gesualdo’s daughter. Isabella before the age of five is sent to the college. Bianca, after childbirth, had started to deploy day by day, because it is sick of tuberculosis like brothers, and would not want to separate from her daughter. Since Isabella is the only daughter, Gesualdo wants the best for her: the best education, which possesses everything that has missed him, who leads a life equal to that of a daughter of a nobleman.

The companions of the college see the girl of evil eye, as they are the daughter of a enriched, conditioned in this by the opinion of the relatives. They launch them on continuous arrows on her inferiority condition. When the father goes to see her, she has the mother’s same attitude towards him: reluctant to physical contact and almost repulsion towards him. The girl feels only trao, denying the surname Motta.

Fifì Margarone, after Ninì’s betrayal, no longer intends to marry him, therefore he for reasons of interest and protecting his house opts to marry Giuseppina Alosi; In fact, she guarantees her husband’s debt by mortgaged her lands in favor of Mastro Don Gesualdo, having no ninì the availability of money that needs. When Isabella is bigger, it passes to the first education in Palermo.
When she is in front of her Gesualdo tries awe, so much is the nobility of her person. Neither Bianca’s brother nor Gesualdo’s relatives feel ties with the girl, with whom they keep a distance.
Even when the cholera epidemic rages, all relatives refuse Gesualdo’s help for pride, who would gladly offer their home in the countryside, away from the plague -plated country. They don’t want to mix with such different people.

Head. II. In the countryside in Mangalavite gives hospitalization in the country due to the accident of cholera. Isabella, leaving the college for the spread of the epidemic, lives in the countryside an unhappy existence since it feels alone, in an environment without stimuli, except for the relationship that is created with cousin Corrado, of which Gesualdo warns as a literate and therefore able to enchant his daughter with his beautiful words.

Div. 3. Gesualdo goes to Salonia after learning that the father also fell ill with cholera; The man arrives just in time to see him die in the night. Her sister hope, fakely grieved, worries only the distribution of the inheritance and once again refuses the help of Gesualdo, who offers to lead with him the whole family to Mangalavite. Amazing for the ingratitude of his sister he returns home, where Nanni the Orbo warns him about the Tresca between Isabella and Corrado. Gesualdo then goes on a rampage and imposes on him and Aunt Cirmena to leave. Gesualdo is aware of the fact that they would like to marry their nephew the girl to improve their economic situation but he “ruining the blood” is not there, putting happiness in the background but
of the daughter.

Chap. IV. Gesualdo tries in every way to discourage Isabella’s passion for Corrado but in the end he is forced to bring her back to the convent. The mother defends her daughter in the sword; It is a torment for her to have to separate and this will remain an incurable wound in her heart. He would like to keep her with him for what little remains to be lived but the husband is adamant. However, friends and relatives row him and stab him behind him, making the girl run away from the convent so that the two lovers have the opportunity to gather. But the young woman is now compromised and Curmena hopes for the wedding between her son and Isabella. However, when Gesualdo becomes aware of the situation, the police intervene and Corrado is sent to exile. Meanwhile, the possibility of a repaired wedding is feared, with a man most up to Isabella; He will be the Duke of Leyra, a nobleman of Palermo, overwhelmed with debts, because it is not at all accustomed to business. Isabella went to cry from relatives and beg them not to sacrifice her. Gesualdo, having known the reputation of man, is no longer convinced that he married his daughter, but put to the tightening by everyone, in particular by the marquis Limoli who wants to make him understand that the girl was pregnant with Corrado, in the end he agrees. The wedding is celebrated quickly, without too many ceremonies and the two spouses leave for Palermo.

Fourth [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

None I. Six months later the son of Isabella and Corrado was born, of whose illegitimacy Gesualdo holds the dark white. Due to the birth of Isabella, Gesualdo is forced to donate other properties (in addition to those of the dowry) to the son -in -law to appease his anger. The father is very saddened by the fact that the land assigned in dowry are poorly managed and grown after all the labors he had made them together. The son -in -law continued to contract debts and he was forced to provide us so that all his savings began to be dissipated.
Meanwhile Bianca continues to worsen with the only desire to be able to review her daughter one last time, an event that will not occur. The woman accuses Gesualdo of having torn her daughter against her will. Bianca is dying and for the occasion the closest relatives are presented to its nippos: first the Baron Zacco and his family; The Baron rather than showing pain for his imminent goal speaks imperturbably of business, spreading of the Canon Lupi and Ninì Rubiera, with the excuse of wanting to distract poor Bianca. Ninì and the consort then present themselves, on the pretext of wanting to visit the sick cousin, but with the true intention of asking yet another economic help in Gesualdo.
The visit to Bianca for both families of relatives becomes a coverage in order to sanction an economic agreement with Gesualdo. The sisters Zacco already think of what could be a new wife for man and for this reason Bianca implores him not to make them come anymore. This is how he has been so for the first time, almost the demonstration of a feeling towards her husband.

Head. II. All the serves abandon the home of the spouses motta for fear of being infected by the pound. As the last hope Gesualdo sends to call Diodata, whose husband agrees to make her work only on economic compensation. However Bianca by jealousy refuses her and does not want to have anything to do with her. Gesualdo decides to call all Bianca’s relatives because the poor man is about to die. The woman dies without her daughter, she was able to draw her bedside, unaware of the degeneration of maternal disease, which the Duke had wanted to keep her hidden.

Div. 3. After Bianca’s death, Gesualdo also falls ill with stomach cancer due to all sorrows and the worries.
In fact, a revolution is feared by the Villani who want the municipal lands to be equally divided together. His stuff is threatened and to make matters worse, they turned his back on him.

Chap. IV. The pretensions of the poor people on the possessions of the richest, first among which Gesualdo stands out, make themselves more and more pressing. For a long time badly seen by the poor, it is now not only defamed by those who have debts towards him, but also by the lords, who try to divert the popular wrath towards the most powerful and full of them. By now tired of Gesualdo, the people in revolt assaults their warehouses. This chapter is set in conjunction during the beginning of the motions of 1848.

Captures. V. Meanwhile, Gesualdo’s disease, manifested in conjunction with the death of Bianca, degenerates to such an extent that the Duke of Leyra decides to take him to Palermo with the false intention of making it visit by the best doctors of the city and ensuring the most effective treatments. His daughter visits him in his rooms every morning, more for a moral duty, than for his real will. The building in which the dukes live is a surplus of pomp and waste, populated by a crowd of servants who flaunt a fake reverence towards the master but who ozze for the most of the time. The two spouses seem to go to love and agree but she actually leads a life full of lies, hypocrisy, cultivating other relationships. The son -in -law wants to prevent Gesualdo from doing will because he fears that he can leave to others part of his fortune. In fact, he has scruples of consciousness towards the children had with Diodata. During the last interview between father and daughter it seems to create some tenderness and complicity between them, who immediately vanishes since the two cannot communicate: she remains a length, one of another pasta and he a motta, her Trinking in his grudge and he gripped by doubt about being the true father of Isabella or not.
The last request that addresses to the daughter is to grant money to Diodata and his children (but for the opposition of the son -in -law, this request will not be performed). His tragic end takes place a few days later, during the night, in solitude, between the indifference of the servants, who ignore and indeed they are annoyed by his complaints of pain, which believe to be only the pitches of a poor old man. A duty like another to serve who really was born better than them; Unacceptable to serve an enriched but they equal from a social point of view. The man has his hands still marked by the Calcina, the first detail of the physical aspect of the master underlined by the rod in chapter III, hands from which the servants understand “as he was born”. All the wealth accumulated by Gesualdo will be dilated by the son -in -law.

Mastro-Don Gesualdo is one of Giovanni Verga’s masterpieces and belongs to the unfinished cycle, said of the losers . The novel is in fact focused on the figure of Gesualdo Motta, a man who in the course of his life sacrifices every affection for strictly economic reasons finding himself in the end crushed and defeated by the aridity of which he surrounded himself.

The theme of the novel is evident from the title: the main character, Gesualdo Motta is nicknamed by his fellow villagers ” master-don “. It is a derogatory nickname that underlines the nature of reached of Gesualdo, a middle ground between ” Master “(appellation reserved for laborers who direct a group of bricklayers) and” Don “(Epithet reserved for gentlemen and landowners).

The protagonist, in fact, from a simple bricklayer becomes first entrepreneur, then owner and finally a husband of a noblewoman; Hence its consequent isolation, since it is detested both by the Basso Ceto villagers, who are envious of his social climb, and by the noble class, which considers him only a enriched twin.

The novel consists of twenty -one chapters divided in turn into four parts, corresponding to the four most important phases of the protagonist’s life: the marriage with Bianca Trao, the economic success, the beginning of the decline of Gesualdo and finally his death. It is therefore a novel that resorts to a technique for views: the most important facts are isolated thanks to large time jumps.

The novel, in addition to showing the decline of the aristocracy, presents a contrast between economic-social success and family affections. The protagonist is a social climber whose salient traits are bourgeois resourcefulness, individualism, materialism and the end of the ideals, so much so that the frantic aspiration to the “stuff” and the social rise mark a race towards alienation And hopeless loneliness.

• Mastro-Don Gesualdo , edited and with afterword by Vincenzo Consolo, Milan, Frassinelli, 1997.
• Mastro-Don Gesualdo , edited by G. Carnazzi, Milan, BUR, 2003.