Italy – the land of beauty
This country is magnificent; it impresses and leaves a trace in people hearts. In the story, Italy is not just a background where some events take place. Italy is a character, with its emotions, features and, of course, reputation: “In a place like this one really does feel in the heart of things, and off the beaten track. Looking out of a Gothic window every morning, it seems impossible that the middle ages have passed away". “Italy really purifies and ennobles all who visit her”, says Philip. This imagery vividly expresses not just the country and its beauty, but also alive creature which lives, develops and suffers.
Italians
Although this book is not the guidebook on Italy and its culture, the imagery of this country and people who live there is important for understanding the main idea of the story. So, Italians, extraordinary and passionate, they don’t know what the golden middle is: they love desperately and desperately hate, if you are their friend, you are their best friend, if you are their enemy – you are the worst man in the whole world: “These people know how to live. They would sooner have a thing bad than not have it at all. That is why they have got to have so much that is good”. “The Italians are essentially dramatic; they look on death and love as spectacles”. This imagery helps the reader to find out more about this people and their way of life and also the imagery uncovers Gino’s character as the representative of the nation.
In the opera house
Italian opera is one of the best in the whole world, it is one of the symbols of the country and when Ms. Abbott, Philip, and Harriet went to Italy to take Lilia’s child to England, they’ve decided to visit the opera. But the reason of their visit was not just for spiritual purpose, they were exhausted and nervous because they didn’t know how to tell Gino that they want to take the child so he will never see his son again. It is a hell of a job, so to say, and brother and sister were nervous, so the opera was the place of relaxation and peace for them: “Miss Abbott fell into the spirit of the thing. She, too, chatted and laughed and applauded and encored, and rejoiced in the existence of beauty. As for Philip, he forgot himself as well as his mission. He was not even an enthusiastic visitor. For he had been in this place always. It was his home.” This imagery helps to understand the mood of characters as well as to discover some new information about Italian culture.
Father Gino
Maybe (or better to say “of course”) Gino was bad and cruel husband, but he was a good father. He wanted to have a son so much that he gave him all the love, his body and soul were able to produce and Ms. Abbott can lend credits to words: “She turned away her head when Gino lifted his son to his lips. This was something too remote from the prettiness of the nursery. The man was majestic; he was a part of Nature; in no ordinary love scene could he ever be so great.” This imagery gives the reader feeling of unity between the father and a child.
