Morality and ego in The ItalianThe Gothic tradition loves to play with a character's morality and this explains his selfish tendencies. In Radcliffe's Italian, no matter which side of the tree of morality a character is on, Satan has slipped a little pride into everyone's apple. The role of lookalikes begins before Poe popularized it. Radcliffe works hard to create evil twins and/or corresponding halves for some characters to demonstrate the power of pride. The gender roles of both male and female characters in The Italian do not always correlate to an archetype. Radcliffe bends not only genre rules, but also the reader's expectations of stature to show each character's true moral status and domineering personality through actions that the reader would not normally expect. Some male characters in this book have values ​​that do not draw parallels to their values. stature in life. For example, Schedoni is a monk, supposedly a loving and caring individual who spreads the word of God. In reality, he conspires with the Marchioness (in a church) to commit a mortal sin, telling her, "...this girl is put out I play to commit more trouble..." (173). This action shows his true color, usually green, and through his large ego, this jealous nature reveals itself. If he were secure as a person, these petty complaints against Vivaldi would be truly petty. Bonarmo's personality also doesn't match his stature. He is a servant whose loyalty to his master abandons him. He is too independent and too intelligent to be a slave to a master who does not believe he is superior to himself. These characters possess too much pride and ego to live in a world where they are not always in company...... middle of paper...... self-indulgence is knowing that you have saved the life of a young woman and having contributed to her happiness (fortunately, Ellena is his daughter). The characters in this novel have conflicting notions of morality and pride. Sometimes, these characteristics are at odds with each other, creating immoral and "evil" characters. Other times they work together to create realism in these people. Moral characters are good, but still have enough pride to be dignified, but not arrogant. Sometimes, when the evil twins (or their other halves) run amok, things get out of hand and problems abound. While in most cases these problems stem from the discrepancy between pride and morality, in other places, dignity and morality work hand in hand to create trustworthy and realistic characters. Works Cited Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian. Oxford University Press. 1968.