Zofloya

Megalena’s storyline deepens the novel’s exploration of female desire and develops the theme of Sexual Jealousy and Rivalry Between Women. While Laurina, and to some extent Victoria, were seduced by male partners who actively pursued them, the dynamic between Megalena and Leonardo inverts the traditional nineteenth century Gothic dynamic of an aggressive male seducer and a sheltered, innocent female object of desire. The first time that Megalena glimpses Leonardo, he is sound asleep, symbolizing his passive innocence. Her desire is unabashedly driven by his physical appearance: “The young Leonardo, however, arrested her attention” (120), and he is described with feminized characteristics to capture his beauty, such as “his vermeil lips” (120) and “his polished teeth” (120).

As a woman who openly lusts after a man and does everything within her power to seduce him, Megalena foreshadows Victoria’s subsequent obsessive desire for Henriquez. She is also intensely jealous of Leonardo, going so far as to demand that he agree to murder Theresa (a woman who attracts Leonardo’s desire). Megalena’s relationship with Theresa introduces the theme of Sexual Jealousy and Rivalry Between Women, which will find its fullest expression in Victoria’s jealousy and hatred towards Lilla.

Megalena also encourages negative tendencies in Leonardo’s character: He is lured into violence rather than lust, but the narrative notes how, under Megalena’s influence, “darkly coloured became the future character of one, yielding progressively to the most horrible crimes” (129). Throughout the novel, Dacre explores The Relationship Between Innate Character and External Influence, introducing malicious characters who lure ostensibly innocent individuals into corruption. Ardolph flatters Laurina into adultery, Megalena coerces Leonardo into a life of violence, and Zofloya eventually tempts Victoria into multiple murders. Megalena’s ability to persuade Leonardo to commit violence illustrates the novel’s inversion of 19th-century gender norms: In their relationship, she holds the more powerful and assertive role.

Once Megalena and Leonardo flee Venice, the primary plot returns to Victoria and focuses on her burgeoning desire for Henriquez. Victoria’s adulterous desire (for her husband’s brother, no less) contributes to her character development as insatiable and willful; as a married woman with sexual experience, she becomes even more fixated on the object of her desire. Victoria is described as effectively beyond redemption at this point: “Her mind, alas, was an eternal night, which the broad beam of virtue never illumined” (143).

Victoria’s desire for Henriquez renders Lilla her rival, and thereby further develops the theme of Sexual Jealousy and Rivalry Between Women. Lilla fulfills the conventional archetype of the Gothic heroine, heightening the juxtaposition between Victoria and Lilla. She is delicate, passive, pious, and virginal. The two women are explicitly described as opposites: “[Victoria] being so completely, both in mind and person, the reverse of that pure and delicate being [Lilla], [Henriquez] […] failed to view them as two creatures of the same class” (147). Even before Henriquez learns that Victoria lusts after him, he finds Victoria unappealingly masculine due to her assertive nature, and he contrasts her with the woman he actually does love and desire. The tension between Victoria and Lilla is so great that there is clear foreshadowing that Victoria may eventually kill her rival; she is described as “regard[ing] the lovely orphan with the eyes of a basilisk” (157), alluding to a mythological creature that could kill with its gaze alone.

Victoria’s desire for Henriquez and jealous hatred towards Lilla sets the stage for the plot’s primary conflict; the rising action continues with the introduction of Zofloya—a figure who tempts Victoria to pursue her impulses and take more extreme action. He encourages her desires and hatred to fester, accelerating her moral corruption. This role as a tempter and instigator connects Dacre’s novel to other texts: Zofloya pays homage to the plot of The Monk, in which Matilda tempts the monk Ambrosio to pursue his obsessive desire for a young woman no matter the cost. The figure of a “Moor” and the novel’s Venetian setting allude to Shakespeare’s play Othello, in which Iago famously plays on the protagonist’s obsessive jealousy to spur him into murderous actions. While Victoria is depicted as vengeful, stubborn, and reckless, she doesn’t take any action until Zofloya begins enticing her. Especially in light of the eventual revelation that Zofloya is Satan, his role as a tempter illustrates The Relationship Between Innate Character and External Influence. Deprived of good moral influences, Victoria becomes particularly susceptible to temptation.

When Zofloya is introduced, his racial and religious identity are foregrounded, and he is repeatedly referred to as a “Moor.” This outdated and racist term was loosely used to demarcate an individual who was African and/or Muslim, and Zofloya is presented in exoticized terms, highlighting stereotypes about non-Western cultures. When Zofloya first appears in Victoria’s dream, he is wearing “a white turban, which sparkled with emeralds […] he wore a collar of gold round his throat” (145). Zofloya’s depiction reflects stereotypes about luxury and indolence in non-Western cultures and heightens the racist overtones of his characterization. At the same time, his depiction is complex in that he is praised for his beauty, loyalty, education, and good manners. Zofloya is presented as subservient to the European characters who control his life: It is unclear whether he is Henriquez’s paid servant or is enslaved. Zofloya’s depiction as a person of color adds complexity to his characterization as Victoria’s tempter and helpmate. It inverts the allusion to Othello (in which a European character coerces a “Moor” into destructive suspicions and actions), and it also inverts the gender dynamics of the plot of The Monk in which Matilda preys on Ambrosio’s lust for a woman.

The relationship between Zofloya and Victoria is presented as a complex intersection of gender, race, and class. Victoria initially appears to have the upper hand as an aristocratic, European woman, but Zofloya alludes to having knowledge and skills that can help her achieve her goals. When Victoria eagerly accepts his offer to help her, she responds: “You would bind me for ever to you” (156), a loaded remark that alludes to how her fate is going to become intertwined with his and foreshadows her eventual forfeiture of her soul. Victoria’s interest in Zofloya is awakened by her strange, prophetic dreams, and she becomes fascinated with him after that, readily confiding secret and illicit desires. It is not immediately clear whether Victoria is enamored with Zofloya himself or simply wants the help he can provide: Her primary object of desire continues to be Henriquez. Zofloya’s role as confidante and helper initially more closely resembles the literary trope of a woman enlisting a female helper (often a servant) to assist in her attempt to pursue a beloved (for example, Juliet confiding to her nurse in Romeo and Juliet). Victoria does briefly hesitate before confiding her secret, as she considers Zofloya “an inferior and an infidel” (156), but her desire for help outweighs her hesitation.

Elements of the supernatural appear in the text around the same time Zofloya is introduced; interestingly, in many Gothic texts, the threat of the supernatural often turns out to be mistaken or confused, but Dacre freely incorporates supernatural elements. Zofloya’s appearance in Victoria’s dreams hints that he is something more than an ordinary man. The strange sequence of events in which he seemingly returns from the dead also implies that he may have begun as an ordinary human but has been possessed or used as a vessel for Satan in his project of luring Victoria into sin. In The Monk, the tempter figure of Matilda is eventually revealed to have been a demon working on behalf of Satan all along. Satan taking on the physical body of a person of color (widely understood by Dacre’s 19th century readers as a Black man, although nothing in the text explicitly identifies him as such) reveals racist stereotypes prevalent in the era that Dacre was writing.