The Beggarwoman of Locarno by Heinrich von Kleist
"The Beggarwoman of Locarno," a short story by Heinrich von Kleist, explores themes of fate, guilt, and the supernatural through the tragic tale of a beggarwoman who suffers a fatal injury after being forced to move by the Marquis. The narrative begins with the arrival of the beggarwoman at a castle, where she is offered shelter by the Marquise. However, the Marquis's callous treatment leads to her collapse and death after he orders her to relocate within the room. Years pass, and the castle falls into disrepair, drawing the attention of a Florentine nobleman interested in purchasing the property.
During his stay, he experiences ghostly phenomena attributed to the beggarwoman's spirit, prompting a series of terrifying encounters for the Marquis and his wife as they attempt to confront the haunting. Their dread culminates in a tragic incident where the Marquis, in a moment of panic, accidentally sets fire to the castle, resulting in his own demise. The story concludes with a haunting image of the Marquis's bones lying in the very spot where he commanded the beggarwoman to rise. This tale intertwines elements of horror with moral reflection, inviting readers to consider the consequences of cruelty and the inescapable nature of guilt.
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The Beggarwoman of Locarno by Heinrich von Kleist
First published: "Das Bettelweib von Locamol," 1810 (English translation, 1934)
Type of plot: Ghost story
Time of work: The fifteenth or sixteenth century
Locale: A castle on the edge of the Italian Alps, near Locarno
Principal Characters:
The beggarwoman , an old sick womanThe Marquis , the lord of the castleThe Marquise , his wifeThe nobleman , a Florentine knight
The Story
The apparent impetus for telling this strange history is the sight of a castle ruin as it might be noticed by a traveler descending into northern Italy from the St. Gotthard Pass. As if in reply to such a traveler's question of how the castle has fallen into disuse and ruin, the narrator tells the story of the beggarwoman of Locarno, in which an old woman comes begging at the castle gate, is taken in at the Marquise's orders, and is given a place to sleep for the night in one of the castle's unused rooms. When the Marquis returns from the day's hunting, however, he peevishly orders the beggarwoman from her place in one corner of the unused room to a spot behind the stove at the opposite side. In her effort to get up, her crutch slips on the polished floor, and she falls, injuring her spine. Laboriously and painfully, she finally stands and hobbles to the corner as bidden, but on reaching the spot, she collapses and dies of her injury.
The incident is evidently forgotten for some years, during which the Marquis's fortunes decline to the point that he begins to think of selling his domain, and the chance arrival of a Florentine nobleman seems to offer such an opportunity. Without further thought, the master and mistress of the house give their prospective buyer lodging in the same unused chamber for the amount of time that he may require to consider the purchase. However, in the middle of the night, the man comes downstairs, pale with fright, to report that his room is haunted by a spirit. He describes the ghostly presence as some invisible thing that arose from a corner of the chamber with a sound as if from a bed of straw, walked with slow, feeble steps across the room, and collapsed with moans and gasps behind the stove. The Marquis tries to reassure his guest and offers to spend the rest of the night with him in the uncanny room as proof that no harm could come to him there, but the knight declines the offer, asks to sleep until morning sitting in a chair, and with the new day continues his journey without delay.
From this time on, the rumor circulates that a ghost inhabits the castle, and several more prospective buyers are frightened off by the tale of what the first one experienced there. The Marquis therefore resolves to discredit the rumor by spending a night in the room himself. To his horror, he experiences, at the stroke of midnight, exactly what the Florentine knight had described. The following morning, he furtively tells his wife that a ghost does indeed inhabit the chamber. She is alarmed by the news but proposes that they confirm it beyond any doubt before acknowledging that the room is haunted. That same night, she, her husband, and a trusted servant all stay in the room, and all three hear the same inexplicable, ghostly sounds.
Now only their fervent wish to find an unwitting buyer and to be rid of the castle enables them to suppress their fear and insist that the uncanny events must have some harmless explanation. A third night, therefore, the husband and wife go to the room, this time with candles, sword, and pistol, and accompanied by the dog, which they decide at the last moment to keep with them. Again, at the midnight hour, the noises are heard. The sound of a crutch tapping on the floor arouses the dog, which backs, growling and barking, toward the corner, as if the animal could see what is invisible to human eyes. At this, the Marquise runs in terror from the room and orders horses hitched to leave at once for the town. Before she can pass through the gate, however, flames spring from the building. In his crazed fear, the Marquis has taken one of the candles and set fire to the place, "weary of his life." It is too late to save him from a gruesome death in the blaze, and, as the imaginary traveler is told at the conclusion, the whitened bones of the Marquis can still be seen lying in the same corner of the chamber from which he had commanded the beggarwoman of Locarno to get to her feet.