The Monk: A Romance

Content Warning: This section references rape and incest.

“Dreams, magic terrors, spells of mighty power, / Witches, and ghosts who rove at midnight hour.”

This epigraph establishes the mood and atmosphere of The Monk. It notifies readers that they should not expect a realistic account of commonplace events; rather, they should expect to encounter out-of-the-ordinary supernatural figures such as “witches, and ghosts” within a “dream”-like atmosphere of “terrors.” It also foreshadows the role “magic” plays within the narrative.

“In the whole course of his life He has never been known to transgress a single rule of his order; The smallest stain is not to be discovered upon his character; and He is reported to be so strict an observer of Chastity, that He knows not in what consists the difference of Man and Woman. The common People therefore esteem him to be a Saint.”

Don Lorenzo’s explanation to Antonia as to why Ambrosio is so famous in Madrid establishes Ambrosio’s public reputation for perfect virtue. At the same time, the hyperbole that Don Lorenzo employs—that Ambrosio “knows not in what consists the difference of Man and Woman”—casts doubt on the truth of Ambrosio’s flawless reputation, establishing the tension of Appearance Versus Reality. This exaggeration causes the reader to question whether any human could (or even should) maintain such perfect chastity.

“Ambrosio’s character is perfectly without reproach; and a Man who has passed the whole of his life within the walls of a Convent, cannot have found the opportunity to be guilty, even were He possessed of the inclination. But now, when, obliged by the duties of his situation, He must enter occasionally into the world, and be thrown in the way of temptation, it is now that it behoves him to show the brilliance of virtue. The trial is dangerous; He is just at that period of life when the passions are most vigorous, unbridled, and despotic; His established reputation will mark him out to Seduction as an illustrious Victim.”

Don Lorenzo’s reflections on Ambrosio foreshadow the primary narrative of the novel: the “trial” of Ambrosio’s virtue and his disastrous inability to regulate his “passions.” Don Lorenzo implies that, ironically, a strict religious upbringing does not prepare a man to withstand temptation; rather, it shelters him so much from temptation (Ambrosio “cannot have found the opportunity to be guilty”) that it weakens his ability to resist it.