The Mysteries of Udolpho

The romantic hero of the novel, Valancourt is the beloved of Emily. As his name suggests, he embodies the qualities of valor and courtliness. He is described as handsome, chivalrous, and somewhat impulsive. He meets Emily and St. Aubert on their journey through the French countryside and falls in love with Emily. Like Emily, Valancourt too is moved by nature and finds inspiration in nature’s sublimity. Thus, he combines a feminine sensitivity with more stereotypically masculine qualities, much like St. Aubert. In fact, St. Aubert sees his younger self in Valancourt, which marks Valancourt as the ideal, compassionate male hero in the universe of the text. Valancourt also symbolizes the passion and ardor of youth, which is shown through his ardent pursuit of Emily and his pain at being separated from her.

When Valancourt is separated from Emily, he takes up gambling and the company of disreputable women in Paris. This is a sign of his impulsiveness and lack of fortitude. Valancourt’s fall is important for his journey as a character. It makes him reassess his actions and reinvent himself to earn Emily’s love and esteem. Due to his willingness to change, Valancourt, like Emily, is a dynamic character—he is capable of self-reflection, maturity, and growth. One of Valancourt’s chief virtues is his charitable nature, seen early in the text when he gives away all his money to a family of shepherds. Later, he is shown to support the old housekeeper Theresa and help out the Bonnacs. This lack of materialism makes Valancourt a foil to greedy characters like Montoni, allowing his marriage to Emily to be based on genuine affection instead of materialistic motives.

St. Aubert is Emily’s father and the closest thing the text has to a moral center. St. Aubert is described as an intellectual, sensitive man who likes nature, solitude, and study. Thus, he represents the man of taste in harmony with the wild. Unlike more ambitious men, he does not seek to improve his home or chase wealth. His happiness lies in spending time with his family and educating his daughter. St. Aubert represents a new masculine ideal, one which combines softer virtues with manly qualities, reflecting some of the ideals of Romanticism. Though he features briefly in the novel, his lessons to Emily guide her throughout the narrative.

Montoni is the step-uncle of Emily, the husband of her aunt, Madame Montoni, and the chief villain of the narrative. A violent and tyrannical man, Montoni is identified by his unscrupulousness, greed, and lack of compassion. His entry into Emily’s universe signifies a worsening of her circumstances. He forbids her from marrying Valancourt, her true love, and tries to force her to marry Count Morano for his money. He dislocates Emily from her familiar France and takes her to forbidding Udolpho. Montoni pressures his wife to sign over the estates, causing her death in the process. He is also associated with warfare, battles, and the banditti, or bands of outlaw robbers.

Montoni is an example of the cruel Gothic villain. He also embodies the worst kind of masculinity. He locks up his wife in a tower, which symbolizes patriarchy’s constraints on women. He threatens Emily with violence and repeatedly makes her aware of her defenseless position. Most of his actions revolve around robbing women of their financial rights and their autonomy and consent. Given his excesses, Montoni is bound to suffer, as per the narrative’s rules of justice. He dies in prison, unable to possess the money he so coveted. Montoni is a static character, who undergoes little evolution. He represents the real-world horrors of patriarchy, which are more menacing than any imagined terrors.