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Cyclopedia of Literary Places

The Charterhouse of Parma

Author: Stendhal (1783–1842)

First published: La Chartreuse de Parme, 1839 (English translation, 1895)

Type of work: Novel

Time of plot: Historical

Time of plot: Early nineteenth century

The primary setting of the novel is the Italian town of Parma, where Fabrizio del Dongo becomes the focal point of power struggles among Parma's prince, the nobility, and the del Dongo family. Set in the aftermath of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the novel is also an assessment of the historical forces and personalities responsible for the fitful disintegration of royalist rule in Europe.

*Milan. City in northern Italy's Lombardy region. Stendhal evokes the atmosphere of this region to explain Napoleon's romantic impact on the novel's main character, Fabrizio del Dongo. Napoleon entered the city on May 15,1796, the head of a young army destined to change the face of Europe. It is this Napoleon that awakens Fabrizio's ambitions to fight in what becomes Napoleon's last famous battle at Waterloo two decades later. Milan also represents, in Stendhal's ironic prose, a foil to the jaded sophistication of his French readers. In introducing his cast of passionate characters, Stendhal comments that in Milan, a “region quite remote from our own, a man may still be driven to despair by love.”

*Como. City in northwestern Italy not far from Milan. With its charming lake of the same name, it is one of the most beautiful sites in the country and in the novel is the home of the del Dongo family. Stendhal presents Como as the secluded, stifling setting in which the naive Fabrizio grows up with visions of sharing in Napoleon's glory.

*Waterloo. Belgian village south of Brussels, where Napoleon fought his last, losing battle in 1815. Stendhal effectively evokes the country atmosphere and the confusion of battle, including Fabrizio's ludicrous attempts to join Napoleon's forces. Traveling under false papers he is arrested as a spy. His incarceration is the first of several imprisonments that ultimately lead to his self-incarceration in the Charterhouse of Parma.

*Parma. Northern Italian city south of the River Po that serves as the site of the novel's central action. Here Fabrizio, under suspicion by the prince and the royalists because of his Napoleonic adventures, wins the favor of the clergy and becomes a controversial figure emblematic of the city's factionalism. Dominating the city is the despotic prince, who has ambitions to become the constitutional monarch of Italy. Indeed, it is only his ambition that prevents the prince from summarily having Fabrizio executed for killing (in self-defense) a rival for the love of an actress. Fabrizio is a prisoner in the Farnese Tower, the prison which is part of the city's cit-adel—a defensive fortress that is mentioned frequently in the novel. Like Parma itself, the citadel is a center of intrigue, where Fabrizio must take care that he is not poisoned by his jailers, and where he survives because he is able to bribe them.

Parma's combination of corruption and thuggery makes the simple, passionate Fabrizio an endearing figure to the public even when they feel he is guilty of murder. However, the prison also becomes a metaphor for his self-confining passions. His devotion to Napoleon leads to his first arrest. His equally devout passion for an actress results in his incarceration in the Farnese Tower. There through a window he observes his jailer's daughter and wishes to stay in prison so he can remain close to a woman with whom he presumes he will never be able to live. Even after she forces him to agree to a daring escape from the tower, he returns to his prison cell in despair over his inability to have her.

*Charterhouse of Parma. Although it provides the novel's title, this former monastery is mentioned only in the book's last three paragraphs. It is the site of Fabrizio's religious retreat from the world. However, it also becomes another form of imprisonment and exile. Stendhal clearly means to link the Charterhouse of his title to the del Dongo castle at Grianta in Como where Fabrizio grew up and to places like Ferrara, a small ancient town in northern Italy, where Fabrizio hid after killing his rival. Thus the idea of society as a prison house from which Fabrizio cannot escape and the idea of society itself as a place of incarceration suffuse Stendhal's deeply ironic and disturbing novel.

—Carl Rollyson

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"The Charterhouse Of Parma." Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0216.
APA 7th
The Charterhouse of Parma. Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0216.
CMOS 17th
"The Charterhouse Of Parma." Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0216.