Consider the ways in which Radcliffe associates fear and power in The Essay

Consider the ways in which Radcliffe associates fear and power in The Italian - Essay Example The name of the girl is Ellena. Like most romantic relationships ever depicted in works of fiction such as Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, the love between these two young people is faced with lots of challenges. It is at this juncture where Radcliffe shows the direct connection between fear and power. After Vivaldi’s mother realises that her son is in love with the poor orphan, she immediately takes action to prevent the marriage. She uses Father Schedoni as the hit man to kill the relationship. She promises father Schedoni that she will help him get promoted if he manages to prevent the marriage. Father Schedoni then uses fear and intimidation to separate the two. At this juncture, Radcliffe uses another style of writing to deliver her thoughts on how fear and power is connected. In the story, father Schedoni is seen issuing threats and intimidating Vivaldi. Every time Vivaldi pays a visit to her lover, he meets with a Monk who tells him in an intimidating way that he shoul d leave the girl alone. However, Father Schedoni does not do this in person but rather uses an apparition to appear to Vivaldi. Radcliffe uses this style of writing as a way to not only entertain her audience but also as a way to drive home her point. The story being a renaissance story, it becomes necessary to understand how the inclusion of the spirit world would affect the story. To understand the importance of introducing this side of the story and using this style, one would have to understand how people in the earlier days would react to images of the spirit world. Radcliffe (453-476) discusses the use of ghosts and tries to indicate how this affects Radcliffe’s credibility. There could be a number of reasons why Radcliffe uses this style of writing to deliver her message (Clery, 158). To begin with, the appearance of the father as an apparition and in the form of a monk is an indication of the connection to the mysterious world of spirits, which can make things to be m ore fearsome. Secondly, although father Schedoni could appear as anything else such as a farmer to Vivaldi, he appears as a monk. A monk is a symbol of power and authority and in this case indicates that power and authority comes by fear, what Radcliffe is trying to tell her audience is the fact that to be powerful one has to be feared. Yet, to be feared, one has to frighten other people, to place their lives at risk in order that they will fear and respect him. This kind of attitude to power can be seen even in the modern Italian mafia. Radcliffe also connects fear and power in other ways. For instance, when Vivaldi’s mother uses Father Schedoni to circumvent the marriage, it is an indication of the fact that she is very powerful and that father Schedoni is also scared of her. This is however not exactly revealed until near the end of the novel where father Schedoni realises that Elena is his daughter. Father Schedoni is on a mission to assassinate Elena when he realizes tha t Elena was her blood daughter. After the realisation, he has to protect her and to do so, he has to hide her from Vivaldi’s mother, an indication that he was also scared of her. Fear is also propagated when Signora Bianchi, Elena’s aunt, suddenly and mysteriously dies after allowing Vivaldi to marry Elena and made Vivaldi the guardian of Elena. In this case, Radcliffe is trying to show how the powerful can use not only power, but also actual brutality in trying to keep the balances of power in check. Although it is not entirely clear who killed