vendetta analysis

Question 1

theme

Answer 1

revenge, vengeance

1. the quest for revenge can become all consuming: All alone, all day long, seated at her window, she was looking over there and thinking of revenge
2. revenge can be sweet: At nightfall the old woman was at home again. She slept well that night.

Question 2

theme 2

Answer 2

savagery and injustice of the code of vendetta
This was an honor code, meaning that a family would suffer great shame or dishonor if it did not take vengeance against another family that had wronged it. Under the code, vengeance must always be sought irrespective of whether the action that led to the wrong was accidental or justified
This aspect may be why Maupassant provides little information about the killing of Antoine Saverini. We are not told the basis of the quarrel that led to the killing, which of the men started the fight, whether Nicolas Ravolati was acting in self-defence, or indeed whether Nicolas killed Antoine as part of a vendetta of his own. None of these things matter to the widow Saverini. Under the code of vendetta she must seek vengeance whatever the circumstances of her son’s killing may be.

Question 3

theme 3

Answer 3

cruelty

in the way the widow Saverini trained the loyal Semillante to kill, and cruelty in the way Nicolas Ravolati died.

Question 4

protagonist

Answer 4

The widow Saverini, a bitter, lonely old woman who feels compelled to murder the man who killed her son.

Question 5

Antagonist

Answer 5

he code of vendetta, a force which drives the old woman to seek vengeance

Question 6

Minor characters

Answer 6

1) Semillante the dog, cruelly treated and the instrument of the widow’s vengeance, yet perhaps the only character that truly mourned Antoine Saverini; 2) Nicolas Ravolati, the man who killed Antoine… but was he really the villain of the story?; 3) The neighbor who provided the widow with straw; 4) The fisherman who took her to Longosardo; 5) The person in the baker’s shop who directed her to Nicolas; and 6) The two neighbors who saw an old beggar leaving Nicolas’s shop.

Question 7

Internal Conflict

Answer 7

The widow Saverini’s initial struggle with herself in trying to think of a way to fulfill her vendetta.

Question 8

External Conflicts

Answer 8

1) The widow Saverini’s desire to kill Nicolas. (Man vs. Man); and 2) The social pressure that compelled the widow to swear her vendetta. (Man vs. Society)

Question 9

irony

Answer 9

The widow Saverini is shown to be a devout Catholic, yet commits what most Christians would consider a grave sin (murder). After coming up with the idea about how to kill Nicolas she went to church and prayed, begging the Lord to help her, to support her, to give to her poor, broken-down body the strength which she needed in order to avenge her son. Prior to the killing she went to confession and, one Sunday morning she partook of communion with an ecstatic fervor. The situational irony here is directed at more than the actions of the widow. Maupassant is satirizing the way that Corsican society appears to have rationalized the code of vendetta by convincing itself that God is OK with it and (at least in the widow’s case) may even assist with any killing involved.