Literature and morality

In his unpublished writings collected under the title Materiali estetici, Manzoni wrote that literature and art were to be considered within the ambit of the “moral sciences”. He also devoted another unpublished text to the “morality” of tragedies. The connection Manzoni makes between literary creation and the sphere of morality is complex, and based on his strong conviction on the moral responsibility of the writer, whose writing may have a powerful influence of the minds and behaviour of readers or spectators. This conviction did not derive only from his religious faith but was an important aspect of the culture of his time, attentive to the psychological and social impact of literary communication. Rousseau (and before him the seventeenth century French moralists, whose works Manzoni knew thoroughly) criticized the contemporary theatre and novel for their ability to seduce and involve. Foscolo meditated on his responsibility as a writer, observing that reading his Ortis had even led some young men to imitate the protagonist’s suicide. This sense of responsibility also led to the discussion, in Fermo e Lucia, on the dangers of the novel about love. Moreover, Manzoni held literature to be moral insofar as it constituted knowledge of the “human heart”, that mysterious and sometimes dark and impenetrable place where “truth” lies hidden. Manzoni is a skilful sleuth of the deepest and innermost conflicts of the characters in his dramas and novel. His portrait of the tragic figure of Gertrude, one of the major characters of the Promessi Sposi, is without a doubt a literary, psychological and ethical masterpiece. His investigation into the human mind was enlightened by his special blend of faith and reason, but at times reveals his extreme pessimism. In the pages on the nun of Monza, Manzoni speaks of the guazzabuglio (“jumble”) of the human heart, using a word dear to him, but in a completely negative sense, repeating it in his description of Renzo’s vineyard (an allegory of humankind) overrun by weeds, and therefore by evil.