The names of the two protagonists allude to their jobs and character traits. The allusion to silk weaving was more obvious in the names in Fermo e Lucia, the first draft: Fermo Spolino (meaning more or less “Firm Shuttle”) and Lucia Zarella. Also in the Promessi Sposi, however, the surname Tramaglino alludes to the local fishermen’s “nets” (tramagli) as well as to the “weft” (trama) in weaving, and the Italian term trama also refers to the “plot” of a novel. The name Lucia is related to “light”, transparency, and truth. The two young people are very different psychologically: Renzo is impulsive, extrovert and strong-willed, while Lucia is cautious, reserved and reflective. These psychological differences also relate to differences in narrative function within the novel. After Renzo leaves his native village, he travels, his adventures taking place in the open air and among the poor and humble people. He frequents the lowest levels of Lombard society: innkeepers, policemen, beggars, robbers and corpse-carriers. These experiences help him to mature, enabling him at the end of the novel to formulate his “negative” kind of moral practice as a list of everything he has learned not to do (Chapters XXXVIII). Lucia, on the other hand, exists within enclosed spaces, inside the home, convent and castle, and (at least so it seems) does not act according to her own will, but as the object of other people’s schemes and desires, as in the case of the surprise wedding and the abduction. On the surface, she comes across as an immobile and passive character, at the most communicating emotions in a persistent state of blushing. Yet Manzoni concedes something denied to Renzo: Lucia meets major characters who play a decisive role in the story and who are also important historical figures, such as the nun of Monza, the Innominato and Cardinal Borromeo. Lucia herself has a decisive influence on one of them, the Innominato, for she transforms his soul, setting him out on the path to religious conversion, thereby bringing about a favourable change in the story. In effect, Lucia mediates the word and light of God. At the end of the novel, when it comes to summing up the point of the story, she expresses a different morality from that of Renzo, since she is ready to accept evil and suffering as signs of Providence too.

Portraits of the two protagonists for the illustrated edition of 1840 [in Marino Parenti, Manzoni editore, Istituto Italiano d’Arti Grafiche, Bergamo, 1943]