The Death of Love:

The Conflict between "private" and "public" in Mary Shelley's Valperga

HAYATOOKA

So soon as ... [love] is dead, man becomes a living

sepulchre of himself, and what yet survives is the

mere husk of what once he was.

-Percy Shelley, "On Love"

Introduction

Valperga: or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of

Lucca (1823), Mary Shelley's second novel-following the more famous

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818, 1831)-is concerned with

the love between men and women. The story of Valperga mainly takes

place in northern Italy when the Renaissance was beginning to flourish

and the Guelphs and the Ghibellines were struggling for power. When

Mary Shelley lived in Italy with her husband, Percy Bysshe, she wrote this

"romance" (Percy 353) using numerous reference materials including

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca (1520)

and Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi's The History of the Italian

Republics in the Middle Ages (1807-18). Machiavelli praises Castruccio

Castracani (1281-1328) as a great prince, whereas Sismondi calls him a

tyrant, which demonstrates just how polarized are the views concerning

Castruccio. Many scholars, in their essays on Valperga, have pointed out

that Mary's view of Castruccio is similar to that of Sismondi, but they have

focused only on the tyrannical aspect of Castruccio without referring to his

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youth and what made him a merciless tyrant. In fact, he has seldom been

brought into focus at all, for though he is the protagonist of the story, two

fictional female figures have been at the center of critical discussions of

Valperga-Euthanasia and Beatrice.

This tendency can be explained in part by the fact that feministic

criticism used to occupy the greater portion of Mary Shelley scholarship.

In addition, there is the critical legacy oftwo important letters, one written

by Percy Shelley and the other by William Godwin. In a letter to Charles

OIlier, the publisher of Valperga, Percy Shelley wrote ...

[tlhe chief interest of the romance rests upon Euthanasia, his

[Castruccio'sl betrothed bride, whose love for him is only equalled

[sicl by her enthusiasm for the liberty of the republic of Florence

... This character is a masterpiece .... The character of Beatrice,

the prophetess can only be done justice to in the very language of

the author. (Percy 353)

A letter from Godwin to Mary also praises the two female characters in

Valperga: "1 think there are parts of high genius, & that your two females

are exceedingly interesting .... Frankenstein was a fine thing ... Castruccio

is a work of more genius ... Beatrice is the jewel of the book; not but that

I greatly admire Euthanasia" (Introduction xvi). Following these letters,

many scholars have taken a biased view of the novel by only focusing on

the two female figures. l It is true, as Godwin points out, that the portraits

of the two female characters in Valperga are more fascinating than those

in Frankenstein and The Last Man (1826), for their characters and names

are very complicated and there is room for us to interpret them variously.

However, 1 would like to maintain that the most important element

in Valperga (and also Mary Shelley's other works) is not the brilliant

portraits of the female characters but the love between two characters. If

the most significant plot element in Frankenstein is the changing

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relationship between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, it is surely

that of Castruccio and Euthanasia in Valperga. Shelley depicts the

relationship between father and son in Frankenstein, and she insists on

the preciousness of love in the novel by showing the Creature's thirst for

love and his agony without it. In Valperga, she portrays love and its failure

between men and women. Castruccio has to pay for his choice-choosing

ambition over love-as Victor does, and both die tragically.

Studies which neglect Castruccio almost inevitably misrepresent the

overall picture of Valperga. The purpose of this paper is to examine the

central significance of the changing relationship between Castruccio and

Euthanasia. After considering the title of the story, I trace the changing

relationship between Castruccio and Euthanasia, focusing on the role of

the castle ofValperga. Next, after showing the limitative power of reason

in Valperga, I analyze Castruccio's tears, which have the power to change

a public relation into a private one. Finally, I suggest how Mary is using

the two terms, history and romance, whose definitions may be influenced

by Godwin, skillfully associating them with the public and private

relationship between Castruccio and Euthanasia.

I. The Fall of Valperga

The final choice of title was William Godwin's. Mary Shelley had

called her novel Castruccio Prince of Lucca, but Godwin, when he revised

the manuscript, changed it to Valperga: or, The Life and Adventures of

Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (Introduction xiv-xvi). Several scholars have

responded positively to the revision. For example, J oseph W. Lew comments

as follows: "[Olne might conclude that William Godwin, in changing the

novel's title from Castruccio to Valperga, had actually displayed a rare and

uncharacteristic insight .... [Valpergal suggests a similar affinity between

Euthanasia (the countess of Valperga) and the fortified estate she has

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inherited through her mother" (Lew 165). Just as Lew relates the main

title Valperga to Euthanasia, so Michael Rossington ("Future Uncertain"

105) and Betty T. Bennett also interpret Valperga (or Valperga, an

imaginary castle Mary invented) as the representation of Euthanasia or

her political belief. Bennett maintains that the relation between title and

subtitle shows the collision of political systems which cannot coexist:

[T]he title of the novel may be viewed as a statement of the central

conflict of the novel. Valperga: or, The Life and Adventures of

Castruccio, Prince of Lucca suggests that the story is about one or

the other. The two cannot coexist; confrontation must erupt.

Victory for Valperga means universal liberty and the sharing of

responsibility for government; victory for Castruccio means

tyrannic government which arbitrarily subjugates and destroys

the people for its own aggrandizement and perpetuation. ("The

Political Philosophy" 358)

It is true that the castle ofValperga can be regarded as a representation of

Euthanasia or her political belief, but it must not be ignored that the

relationship of the two powers, or that of Castruccio and Euthanasia, is a

fluid one. And Bennett's reading of the "or" connecting the main title and

subtitle is a problematic one. Shelley's first novel, Frankenstein; or, The

Modern Prometheus, had the same title-structure, and the "or" there (as in

most titles of this nature) represents equivalence rather than opposition:

Victor Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus. In the same way, the "or"

in the title of Valperga enables us to interpret the relationship of two

powers as a fluid one: Valperga is the life and adventures of Castruccio.

It is true that Valperga is connected with Euthanasia, but Valperga

can be linked with Castruccio's conscience, too. When Castruccio finds out

that Euthanasia is involved in the conspiracy to bring him down, he

grievously moans: "'she [Euthanasia] must have known, that in spite of

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absence and repulse, she was the saint of my life; and that this one human

weakness, or human virtue, remained to me, when power and a strong will

had in other respects metamorphosed me'" (364).2 For Castruccio, who has

already become a merciless tyrant, only Euthanasia stands inside his

heart as his last remaining conscience. This is the foundation of my reading

of the novel.

Most critics of Valperga have focused only on the tyrannical aspect of

Castruccio without referring to his boyhood. Castruccio, in fact, has been

involved in party warfare since he was a boy. His father, who belongs to the

Ghibellines, loses the battle against the Guelphs and ends up in a desperate

situation. Castruccio's mother, to save her only child, tries to hide him in

the castle ofValperga ruled by Euthanasia's parents. Although Euthanasia's

father belongs to the Guelphs, "[h]e was bound to Ruggieri [Castruccio's

father] by the strongest ties of private friendship" (8). When Castruccio's

mother is prepared to let her son go, she says to him significantly: '''Valperga

is your refuge; you well know the road that leads to it'" (8). This seems to

imply that Castruccio should depend on Valperga (or Euthanasia, or his

conscience) as a moral anchorage.

A few years later, Castruccio loses his mother and father, and,

following the latter's directions, visits his father's old friend Francesco de

Guinigi, who used to be a warrior. Guinigi lives a peaceful Arcadian life

after his retirement from battlefields. He tries to teach Castruccio the

excellences of life surrounded by serene nature. Guinigi's pastoral life and

his love of nature and peaceful landscapes are idealized. The narrator uses

the aesthetic word "picturesque" three times (23, 25, 29). It is worth quoting

one of the three examples: "[T]he picturesque views for a while beguiled

his [Castruccio'sl thoughts" (23). The word is significantly echoed in the

later description of the castle ofValperga: "The castle itself was a large and

picturesque building, turreted, and gracefully shaded by trees" (86). By

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using the word "picturesque" here, the narrator succeeds in establishing

Valperga's ideal associations.

Castruccio and Euthanasia have known each other since they were

children. They often meet in the castle ofValperga, suggesting an ideal and

peaceful relationship, and they come to love each other; however, as

Castruccio gains power and influence over the Ghibellines, Euthanasia,

the castellan of Valperga, is thrown into an emotional conflict for she

belongs to the Guelphs and has a duty to protect her people:

"Well may it please one so nearly useless as I [Euthanasia] am,

that I can save the lives of some of my fellow-citizens. Do you not

know, dearest Castruccio, that when you draw your sword against

the Florentines, it is always wetted with the blood of my best

friends? Love you indeed I always must; but I know, for I have

studied my own heart, that it would not unite itself to yours, if,

instead of these thoughts of peace and concord, you were to

scheme war and conquest." (112)

Leaving hurt feelings behind, Euthanasia becomes engaged to Castruccio.

Galeazzo Visconti, a leading member of the Ghibellines, finds

Castruccio's love for Euthanasia distasteful, for he thinks that Castruccio

is hesitating to attack Florence where the castle of Valperga stands. To

separate them from each other, Galeazzo lies to Euthanasia about

Castruccio's designs on control over Florence. Things turn out just as

Galeazzo wished. Euthanasia's trust in Castruccio wavers and her

awkward manner plants doubts in Castruccio's mind; he becomes suspicious

of people around him and starts to banish and execute them one after

another. He is not what he used to be: "He [Castruccio] was no longer the

same as when he had quitted it [Florence]; he returned full ofthought,­

with a bent brow, a cruel eye, and a heart not to be moved from its purpose

of weakness or humanity. The change might appear sudden, yet it had

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been slow;-it is the last drop that overflows the brimming cup" (199).

Euthanasia, who cannot bear to see people dying and Castruccio's acts of

brutality, visits him to stop his tyranny, but Castruccio decisively says:

"'Madonna, I know already what you are about to say ... I said that no

man could with impunity sacrifice the lives of his fellow-creatures to his

own private passions; but you must not torture my meaning; the head of a

state is no longer a private man'" (204, emphases added). Castruccio puts

his public relationship before his private one, that is his love for

Euthanasia.

Not for the Guelphs, but to protect liberty and the people of Florence,

Euthanasia resists Castruccio's demands for her to surrender. Castruccio

realizes that it is useless to attempt to persuade her and he finally decides

to attack the castle of Valperga which is the last stand for the Guelphs.

Before the battle, Castruccio orders his armies to use a passage leading

into the castle which he often used when he wanted to visit Euthanasia in

secret. He uses the legacy of his private relationship with Euthanasia to

secure his public position. The picturesque castle ofValperga, which stands

for Castruccio's conscience, is now utterly ruined as if showing Castruccio's

desolate soul: "Valperga! that was now a black and hideous ruin, and he

[Castrucciol the author of its destruction" (274). As the castle falls,

Castruccio takes the last step towards being a merciless tyrant, and

abandoning himself to ambition and revenge, he loses the most precious

thing in him-his love for Euthanasia, i.e. his conscience: '''My lord

[Castruccio], do not speak thus to me,' replied Euthanasia ... 'We are

divided; there is an eternal barrier between us now, sealed by the blood of

those miserable people who fell for me. I cannot, I do not love you'" (260).

11. Tears of the Tyrant

Euthanasia and Beatrice are fictional characters, and they differ

8

from each other completely. While Euthanasia is portrayed as a woman of

reason and intelligence, Beatrice is a girl with a passionate disposition and

a wild imagination. William D. Brewer compares these two characters and

points out that "the ruling passion," which has been treated by many

writers including Alexander Pope, brings Beatrice to ruin. 3 As "[almbition

had become the ruling passion of ... [Castruccio'sl soul, and all bent

beneath its sway, as a field of reeds before the wind" (211), so a mad love

for Castruccio and an unbridled imagination are "the ruling passion" of

Beatrice. A "ruling passion" has a power to change one into a completely

different person. On one hand, Castruccio's violent ambition and desire for

revenge have changed the kindhearted boy with a sublime spirit into a

cruel tyrant: "[Castruccio wasl a tyrant; a slave to his own passions, the

avenger ofthose of others. Castruccio was ever at war" (210). On the other,

after Beatrice's single-minded love is shattered when she hears that

Castruccio loves Euthanasia, her feelings become wild and obsessive;

finally the girl who used to be called a saint turns into a madwoman: '''Save

me!' she [Beatricel cried, 'save me from madness, which, as a fiend, pursues

and haunts me. I endeavour to fly him [Castrucciol; but still he hovers

near: is there no escape? Oh! If God be good, surely he will redeem my soul

from this curse'" (324).

Euthanasia also has a "ruling passion": "A hatred and fear of war is

therefore a strong and ruling passion in my [Euthanasia'sl heart" (112).

While she can subdue this with her powers of reason she cannot, as Brewer

says, subdue other people's "ruling passions" (Brewer 143-44). In Valperga,

reason is almost helpless against passion: "It is difficult to answer the

language of passion with that of reason" (198). Thus, Euthanasia cannot

subdue Beatrice's "ruling passion," that is, the madness oflove. Beatrice's

death in madness tells us that, against Godwin's beliefs, reason cannot

work as a panacea. The power of reason is limited in Valperga, for reason

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can only save oneself, not others. Is there, then, anything that can save

others ifthe power of reason is helpless? The question leads us back to the

changing relationship between Castruccio and Euthanasia.

Mter the destruction of the castle ofValperga, Castruccio, who is now

the prince of Lucca, dominates Tuscany and changes it into hell-like the

Hell depicted by Dante. The Arcadian and picturesque scenery which

Guinigi loved is gone and a huge number of the Guelphs are exiled or

executed simply because they are suspicious. In the following paragraph,

Shelley adds a footnote referring the reader to Dante's Inferno when she

describes the massacre. Just as Dante treads on bloody bodies in the

Seventh Circle of Hell in the Inferno, so Euthanasia walks along a street

filled with the blood of the Guelphs: "The very path on which she

[Euthanasial trod was slippery with blood; and she felt as if she walked

through one of the circles of hell's torments, until she reached the foot of

the rock" (255). Hellish sights and images can be found everywhere. In the

cottage where Beatrice was confined, a "carnival of devils" (298) was taking

place every night, and Battista Tripalda-Castruccio's spy who abducted

and confined Beatrice-is likened to Cerberus, the "hell-hounds" (360). In

the center of this hell, there exists Castruccio who is compared to Lucifer

the fallen angel (277) and Satan (177, 345).

The Guelphs who are still resisting Castruccio approach Euthanasia

and ask her to assassinate him. In order to save not only her people and

homeland, but also Castruccio himself from his own diabolic power,

Euthanasia makes a painful decision to participate in the conspiracy to

overthrow the tyranny ofCastruccio under the condition of not taking his

life: "[Llet his [Castruccio'sl life be saved; but let him be torn from the

power which he uses more like a fiend than a human creature" (345).

Euthanasia, however, later discovers that Tripalda was also part of the

conspiracy. Because of fears that Castruccio may discover his abduction

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and confinement of Beatrice through Euthanasia, Tripalda, in order to

remove Euthanasia, betrays the conspiracy to Castruccio. Castruccio is

aghast at the betrayal of Euthanasia, but, to save her life at least, he

hurries her to prison where she is held with the other conspirators, who

are awaiting execution.

Castruccio meets Euthanasia after a long separation and no matter

how much he begs her to live, she does not change her will to die with the

other Guelphs. Castruccio kneels in front of her and as he begs her to live

he starts to cry: "The light of the solitary lamp fell full upon the countenance

of Castruccio: it was softened from all severity; his eyes glistened, and a

tear stole silently down his cheek as he prayed her to yield" (371). Finally,

Euthanasia accepts his wish. Tears play a significant role here and the

narrator comments as follows:

They talk of the tears of women; but, when they flow most

plenteously, they soften not the heart of man, as one tear from his

eyes has power on a woman. Words and looks have been feigned;

they say, though I believe them not, that women have feigned

tears: but those of a man, which are ever as the last demonstration

of a too full heart, force belief, and communicate to her who causes

them, that excess of tenderness, that intense depth of passion, of

which they are themselves the sure indication. (371)

In a book review, J. G. Lockhart evaluated Valperga as a "modern and

feminine" work too reliant on the "thoughts and feelings" ofthe characters

(Lockhart 287). Rossington, in response, points out that Lockhart may

have focused on the tears of Castruccio when he evaluates Valperga; he

calls Castruccio "a modern man of feeling" (Introduction xix-xx). It is

certainly not the power of reason that is used here to save others, but a

demonstration of feeling-tears. According to the narrator, and to Anne

Vincent-Buffault who wrote Histoire Des Larmes, tears show cordiality

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and communicate beyond words, stemming from one's heart of hearts

(Vincent-Buffault 18, 27-31, 155-61).4

Vincent-Buffault further illustrates the effect of tears which may

remind and lead us to private relationship (Vincent-Buffault 161-62). The

public relationship between Castruccio and Euthanasia reverts into a

private one, that is, love. Castruccio's tears remind Euthanasia of when

she first saw Castruccio's tears: "Euthanasia had seen Castruccio weep but

once before; it was many years ago" (371-72). In their younger days,

Euthanasia had said to Castruccio:

"We [Euthanasia and Castrucciol are very young; we know not

what misfortunes are in store for us; what losses, perhaps what

calumnies, or even dishonour, may in after times taint our names.

In calumny it is to the friends of our youth that we must turn; for

they alone can know how pure the heart is, with which they were

acquainted at the time when disguise could have no existence.

They, if they are true, dare not leave us without consolation."

(20)

The tears of the tyrant, albeit momentary, enable Castruccio and

Euthanasia to return their past-the time free from such public

relationships as political ties-and to recreate the private relationship.

Instead of words or reason, the tears link their hearts through their long­

forgotten but shared memories.

Ill. Love Dies and Romance Ends

To save Euthanasia's life, Castruccio allows her punishment to be

lessened. Instead of being executed, she is banished from Lucca and leaves

for Sicily by ship. However, her ship gets caught in a sudden rainstorm.

Euthanasia disappears into the sea with her ship: "Such was the storm, as

it was seen from shore. Nothing more was ever known ofthe Sicilian vessel

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which bore Euthanasia. It never reached its destined port, nor were any of

those on board ever after seen" (376). Here the last chapter of Valperga

ends, and after the last chapter, the rest of the life of Castruccio is narrated

in detached tones in the "CONCLUSION." The narrative here is similar to

that in Machiavelli's The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca which

Percy Shelley criticized as follows: "[Tlhenovel ofMachiavelli ... substitutes

a childish fiction for the far more romantic truth of history (Percy 353).

Neither depicts the feelings and speeches of the character at all, rather

describing the incidents with a detached voice. In "Of History and Romance,"

Godwin first distinguishes between "history," which is a mere statement of

facts like public records, and "romance," which focuses on particular figures

and portrays their way of life, including the private aspect of their life:

"That history which comes nearest to truth, is the mere chronicles offacts,

places and dates. But this is in reality no history" (Godwin 297). Then he

continues that it is romance that speaks the truth of history and he regards

romance as the "real history": "The writer ofthe romance is to be considered

as the writer of real history" (Godwin 300).

Although Castruccio, already changed into a merciless tyrant,

pleaded tearfully with Euthanasia to survive, Euthanasia, who was the

last remains of his human aspect-his conscience-vanishes. As if

Castruccio's conscience and Euthanasia are one, after she disappears into

the sea in the last chapter, the later life and death of Castruccio are

narrated without any display of humanity in the conclusion, which tells us

"the sorrows of his heart" (379) effectively:

[Hle [Galeazzol expired on the third of September 1328. On the

same day, and at the same hour, Castruccio died at Lucca. His

enemies rejoiced in his death; his friends were confounded and

overthrown. They, as the last act of gratitude, conducted the pomp

of his funeral with princely magnificence. He was buried in the

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church of San Francesco, then without, now included within, the

walls of Lucca (380).

Castruccio is "now for ever deprived" (379) of "peace, sympathy, and

happiness" (379). The narrator describes the story of Castruccio and

Euthanasia from the beginning to the last chapter as "private chronicles"

(378) and calls the conclusion "public histories" (378), which corresponds to

Godwin's definition of history. As mentioned earlier, the relation between

Castruccio and Euthanasia via Valperga can also be found in the relation

between the main and the subtitle of the novel. As Valperga-the main

title of the story-disappears, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio,

Prince of Lucca, the subtitle, connected by the equivocal word "or," also

comes to an end. The "romance," which depicted both the public and private

relationships ofCastruccio and Euthanasia, including their love and clash,

ends leaving behind the "public histories" alone: "The private chronicles ...

end with the death of Euthanasia. It is therefore in public histories alone

that we find an account of the last years of the life of Castruccio" (378).

Conclusion

Valperga ends tragically with the deaths of Euthanasia and Castruccio.

The power of reason may save oneself, but cannot save others from their

"ruling passion[sl." Instead of the power of reason, we can rather find hope

in the sentimental aspect and sentimental value of men in Valperga. The

key to overcoming the conflict between two powers is to depend on the

private relationship which is linked to our sentimental aspect and

sentimental value. For example, in the beginning of the story, when

Euthanasia's father, who belongs to the Guelphs, saves Castruccio's father

and his family, the narrator calls their friendship based on a supra-partisan

basis "private friendship": "He [Euthanasia's fatherl was bound to Ruggieri

[Castruccio's fatherl by the strongest ties of private friendship" (8). In

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addition to this example, we must remember that Castruccio's tears-the

tears of the tyrant-recreated the private relationship which saved

Euthanasia's life. However, when Euthanasia, or his love, dies, the "private

chronicles" (378), or the romance, also ends. In the conclusion or "public

histories" (378), the rest ofCastruccio's life-the life without love-and his

death, are told in a matter-of-fact way. As Castruccio chooses the public

relationship at the command of his "ruling passion" over the private

relationship, he has to pay the price by suffering an irrevocable loss-the

death of love.

Notes

1. For example, Joseph W. Lew and Sharon M. Twigg focus on two female figures;

Michael Rossington ("Future Uncertain") and William D. Brewer on Euthanasia

and Jane O'Sul1ivan on Beatrice.

2. I use the edition published by Oxford University Press and references are to

this edition, the text edited by Rossington.

3. Alexander Pope reveals the evils of master or ruling passion in An Essay on

Man (1734) as follows:

one master passion in the breast,

Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.

As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,

Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young disease, that must subdue at length,

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength:

So, cast and mingled with his very frame,

The Mind's disease, its ruling passion came;

Each vital humour which should feed the whole,

Soon flows to this, in body and in souL (Pope 11. 131-40)

Brewer shows the idea ofthe master passion in the Romantic period by focusing

on the works of the dramatist Joanna Baillie. See his "Mary Shelley'S Valperga:

The Triumph of Euthanasia's Mind."

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4. In Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears, Tom Lutz also presents

the history of tears and says, "tears have power precisely because they can

'change the environment'" (Lutz 225-26).

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on my presentation at the 48th annual conference

ofthe English Literary Society of Doshisha University on 27 October 2013.

The title of the presentation was "Maleness and Femaleness in Mary

Shelley's Valperga."

I would like to thank Dr. David Chandler for his help in reading the

manuscript and providing valuable advice on it.

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