The Triumph of Death: Analysis of Setting
"The Triumph of Death: Analysis of Setting" examines the various locations integral to the narrative of Giorgio and Ippolita, two lovers navigating their existential struggles in Italy. The story begins in Rome, where their initial meeting sets the stage for a longing for connection that is juxtaposed against a backdrop of restlessness. Despite their travels, Rome remains a central symbol, representing life and a place they cannot escape, even as they search for meaning in other locales.
Their journey includes stops at Villa Cesarini, where the couple's increasing discontent becomes palpable as external news rekindles their yearning for Rome. In Guardiagrele, Giorgio confronts familial alienation amid the coldness of the surrounding mountains, reflecting his inner turmoil. The Hermitage, on the Adriatic coast, offers a temporary refuge, yet ultimately becomes a site of despair, underscored by the lovers’ tragic decision to leap into the sea.
Their visit to Castalbordino reveals a chaotic scene of suffering, deepening Giorgio's distaste for human experience. Through these settings, the narrative poignantly explores themes of love, longing, and the search for identity amidst a landscape that is both beautiful and oppressive.
The Triumph of Death: Analysis of Setting
First published:Il trionfo della morte, 1894 (English translation, 1896)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of work: Nineteenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Rome
*Rome. Italy’s capital city, in which the novel begins with lovers Giorgio and Ippolita meeting for the first time in the Via del Babuino. The city is immediately established as a point of departure; the story then hurries on to a point, two years after their first meeting, when they are consulting a Baedeker travel guide for inspiration. No sooner have they left the city, however, than they begin to immerse themselves in their memories of it. It becomes part and parcel of their existential predicament that wherever they are, they will soon yearn to be elsewhere. They find it hard to select a destination, and in the early phases of the novel they are often sidetracked. There is a sense in which Rome remains the center of their conceptual universe no matter where they are, but they cannot be content to remain or return there. Perhaps, for Giorgio at least, Rome is symbolic of life itself; he finds it impossible to leave the city in any meaningful sense, even though he does not want to be there.
Villa Cesarini
Villa Cesarini. House in Albano, not far from Lake Nemi, at which Giorgio and Ippolita stay while on their first excursion. Their mail catches up with them there, bringing them news from other places, renewing their restlessness and drawing them back to Rome.
*Guardiagrele
*Guardiagrele (gwahr-dyah-GRAY-lay). Town in Chieti Province in which Giorgio was born and where various members of his divided family still live. He returns there in response to a call of duty, while Ippolita visits her own family in Milan. Guardiagrele lies on the lower slopes of the Majella mountain, overlooking the valley of the river Foro. The cold remoteness of the surrounding peaks underscores Giorgio’s alienation from various members of his family and the world.
Hermitage
Hermitage. House at San Vito on Italy’s Adriatic coastline, situated on a plateau that rises precipitately above the sea. Vasto Point, Mount Gargano, and the Treniti Islands are visible in one direction, Cape Moro and Cape Ortona in the other. Giorgio rents the house in order to begin a “new life” with Ippolita. When the life in question proves unsatisfactory, the promontory that extends from the plateau provides the launching pad from which Giorgio and Ippolita leap to their deaths.
The changing aspects of the distant city of Ortona—brilliantly white at first, but bathed, when the lovers look in that direction for the last time, in the gaudily problematic light of a fireworks display—mirror some of the extremes of Giorgio’s moods. The Hermitage does provide a temporary haven from the lovers’ existential malaise, but they find it hard to accommodate themselves to local ways. Giorgio becomes briefly fascinated with the local fishermen of the Trabocco and allows himself to be lulled into a stupor by the stifling warmth of the climate, but the respite thus gained cannot last. The addition of a piano to the house’s sparse facilities provides a further measure of relief, but the echoes of Richard Wagner’s music that it enables the lovers to conjure up only serve to feed Giorgio’s malaise.
*Castalbordino
*Castalbordino. Site of a shrine in the province of L’Aquila at which the Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared in 1527. When Giorgio and Ippolita visit in the course of an excursion from the Hermitage, they discover a vast crowd in which the maimed, the mad, and the miserable jostle one another, competing for space with animalistic fervor as they implore the Virgin Mary (the Madonna) to grant them release from their suffering. This spectacle raises Giorgio’s distaste for the world and its ways to a new intensity.
Bibliography
Jullian, Philippe. D’Annunzio. Translated by Stephen Hardman. London: Pall Mall Press, 1972. A comprehensive study of the man and his works. The Triumph of Death is discussed in chapter 5.
Klopp, Charles. Gabriele D’Annunzio. Boston: Twayne, 1988. A compact but thorough study of the man and his works.
Praz, Mario. The Romantic Agony. Translated by Angus Davidson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933. This classic study of Romanticism and Decadence makes abundant reference to D’Annunzio. Section 24 of chapter 4 considers Ippolita as a femme fatale.
Rhodes, Anthony. The Poet as Superman: A Life of Gabriele D’Annunzio. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1959. A biography with some critical discussion. The Triumph of Death is discussed.