The Woman of Rome by Alberto Moravia
"The Woman of Rome" by Alberto Moravia is a poignant exploration of the life of a young woman named Adriana, set against the backdrop of post-war Italy. Adriana, a beautiful sixteen-year-old, navigates a world fraught with poverty and familial expectations, particularly those imposed by her mother, who sees her daughter's beauty as a means of financial survival. The narrative delves into Adriana's struggle for independence and identity as she ventures into modeling and eventually becomes embroiled in a life of prostitution, prompted by her mother's relentless pursuit of wealth.
The novel intricately portrays Adriana's relationships, particularly with men like Gino, a gentle chauffeur, and Sonzogno, a violent thug, highlighting the complexities of love, betrayal, and survival. Moravia's work not only examines personal ambition and desire but also reflects broader societal issues such as class, morality, and the consequences of choices made in desperation. Adriana's journey is marked by poignant moments of hope and despair, culminating in a tragic realization of her circumstances that resonates with themes of existentialism. Ultimately, "The Woman of Rome" serves as a compelling commentary on the female experience and the harsh realities faced by women in a challenging socio-economic landscape.
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The Woman of Rome by Alberto Moravia
First published:La romana, 1947 (English translation, 1949)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Naturalism
Time of plot: 1930’s
Locale: Rome
Principal characters
Adriana , a prostituteHer Mother ,Gino , a chauffeurMino , a studentSonzogno , a thugAstarita , a police officialGisella , Adriana’s friend
The Story:
Sixteen-year-old Adriana is beautiful. Her lips are red and full, her breasts high and firm. Her mother, a poor sewing woman, thinks of Adriana as her only capital; the family has been poverty-stricken since the illness and death of the father. Adriana’s mother does not conceal her opinion that their poverty can be traced to her marriage and to Adriana’s unwanted birth.
Thinking her daughter mature enough, the mother takes her to an artist to arrange for her career as a model. Adriana is not embarrassed by undressing before a strange man, nor is she much embarrassed when her mother punches and pats her naked body as she stresses her good points. Nevertheless, her mother’s shrill arguing about the pay is quite rude. She is especially violent with polite people, such as the artist, because they usually give in before her displays of temper.
The artist agrees to pay a higher fee with good grace. As he talks with Adriana afterward, he tries to tell her that her mother loves money above all else. Adriana is unconvinced. The artist is about forty years old and always correct in his behavior. When his pictures do not sell, he has no more work for Adriana. She has little difficulty in obtaining other jobs, because her figure is so fine, even heroic in proportions.
When modeling does not pay well enough, her mother tries to get Adriana a job as a dancer, and she secures an interview with a vaudeville manager. Adriana does her best, but she is miserably conscious of her clumsy feet. Even her mother’s shrewish scolding cannot win Adriana a job on the stage.
Adriana dutifully takes as many modeling jobs as she can, builds up a reputation for virtue among the artists, and sews shirts in the afternoons and the evenings. A turning point comes when she meets Gino.
Gino is soft-spoken and gentle despite his rough workman’s hands. He is a chauffeur for a wealthy family, and when he can, he takes Adriana for long rides. Her mother objects to the friendship, for she thinks Adriana’s beauty can win her a gentleman.
Adriana does not object when Gino invites her to his employer’s villa while the family is away. She willingly goes to his room, and afterward they sleep until past midnight. Adriana was never out so late before, and her suspicious mother is furious. She sets on her daughter with her fists and beats her as long as she has strength. Then she takes Adriana to an all-night clinic and has her examined by a doctor. When the doctor confirms her fears, she is glum but calm.
It is understood that Gino and Adriana will marry, but Gino finds excuses for delaying the wedding. The mother is pessimistic about the marriage. Gisella, Adriana’s friend, is also doubtful of Gino’s intentions and urges her to accept a rich lover while she can. She finally induces Adriana to go out to dinner with Astarita, a rich police official who is anxious to meet her. At the dinner in a hotel Gisella almost forces Adriana to go into a bedroom with Astarita. On the way home Astarita gives Adriana money.
So Adriana is launched on a new career. She does not dissolve her relationship with Gino, for she still thinks that perhaps they will be married. That hope vanishes, however, when Astarita produces evidence that Gino is married and has a daughter. For revenge, Adriana lets Gino take her to the villa again, but she insists on making love in the mistress’s bed. After she tells Gino that she knows the truth about his wife, she steals a compact from the dresser.
Adriana becomes a prostitute. She usually brings her clients home, and her mother accepts the state of affairs with good grace because there is more money in the house. Adriana usually sleeps late and leads an indolent, satisfied existence. She really likes men. Her mother becomes fat and much less attractive.
One night she meets Gino again. He wonders about the compact. On their return home, the wealthy family misses it, and Gino suspects Adriana. Gino arranges to have suspicion fall on a maid, who is arrested and sent to jail. After getting the compact from Adriana, Gino plans to sell it to a fence. When he says he will divide the money with her, Adriana, filled with pity for the falsely arrested maid, refuses.
She finds Gino one night in company with Sonzogno, a strong man and a thug. When Gino and Adriana leave a café together, she feels repelled by her former fiancé and on an impulse calls to Sonzogno for help. He promptly knocks Gino down and goes home with Adriana. Adriana is both attracted to Sonzogno and in terror of him. He has the stolen compact in his possession. Gino gave it to Sonzogno to sell, and Sonzogno murders an old jeweler to whom he took it for that purpose. After listening to callous boasts of his crime, Adriana succeeds in getting the compact away from him. She experiences a horrible evening, for Sonzogno beats her. Later she has her confessor give the compact to the police, and the maid is released.
Gisella and Adriana go out for the evening and are picked up by two men. The four go to Adriana’s house. Soon afterward, Gisella becomes the mistress of her pickup and is promptly installed in her own apartment. Adriana’s pickup is Mino, a nineteen-year-old student. Thin and withdrawn, he is not much interested in lovemaking. His attitude attracts Adriana and thereafter she pursues him, even to his respectable rooming house.
Adriana’s affairs become more complicated. The friendly clinic doctor confirms her fears; she is pregnant. As she thinks back, she knows that Sonzogno is the father. She is rather pleased to have a child, but her baby will be born of a murderer and a prostitute. When Mino comes to live at her house, she tells him that he is the father of her expected baby.
Mino is an anti-Fascist engaged in subversive work. When he is arrested, he promptly betrays his fellow conspirators under the sympathetic questioning of Astarita. As soon as he learns that Astarita is an admirer of Adriana, he proposes that she invite him to her house, and there Mino will shoot him.
Sonzogno, sure that Adriana betrayed him to the police, arrives just before Astarita is expected. When Astarita appears, he slaps the submissive Sonzogno’s face and sends him away. Then he tells Adriana that Mino’s confession was not written down and the police took no action against his friends.
Adriana is nevertheless apprehensive. It is not like Sonzogno to be meek. When she goes to the ministry, her fears are justified. Astarita is dead in the courtyard; Sonzogno followed him to his office and threw him off a balcony. Adriana goes home to find Mino gone. He left a note saying that his parents will look after her and his son; he is going to kill himself. His body is found in a hotel near the station.
Bibliography
Heiney, Donald. Three Italian Novelists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1968. Discusses Moravia’s change in technique in The Woman of Rome to a first-person, female, lower-class narrator. Examines Moravia’s impatience with omniscient narration.
Lewis, R. W. B. “Eros and Existence.” In The Picaresque Saint. New York: Lippincott, 1959. Worth looking at for Lewis’s analysis of Moravia’s use of sexual encounters as proving grounds of the existential.
Moravia, Alberto. Man as End. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966. Eighteen essays that provide invaluable information about the author’s philosophy and his approach to the novel as a literary form.
Moravia, Alberto, and Alain Elkann. Life of Moravia. Translated by William Weaver. South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Italia, 2000. A biography written in the form of an extended interview of Moravia by his friend, Elkann. Moravia discusses his life, his work, and the events that shaped his imagination, shedding light on the way his writings were built upon his experiences. Weaver, who knew Moravia, provides an introduction in which he discusses the writer.
Peterson, Thomas Erling. Alberto Moravia. New York: Twayne, 1996. Comprehensive coverage of Moravia’s life and works. Includes critical analysis of major works as well as information on personal and public activities. Describes the political climate in Italy and its relevance to Moravia’s life.
Ross, Joan, and Donald Freed. The Existentialism of Alberto Moravia. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972. Places Moravia’s writings in relation to existential philosophy.
Stella, M. John. Self and Self-Compromise in the Narratives of Pirandello and Moravia. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. Analyzes works by Moravia and Luigi Pirandello to examine how they treat issues of identity, focusing on how the two writers’ concepts of individual identity were influenced by Buddhist doctrines.