The Charterhouse of Parma

Gina del Dongo reflects the adaptability and passionate nature of the nephew to whose life she attaches her own. As her changing titles suggest, she is at one time attached to Napoleon and later to the Restoration. A true companion of Mosca, Gina finds unique intimacy with the last remaining revolutionary of Parma’s restoration in the figure of the poet Ferrante. More than her attachments, Gina f is defined by her quest for what she cannot have nor possibly even want—a romance with her nephew. She seems at times to live vicariously through Fabrizio but at other times is the very heart and soul of the novel’s events. She is the bridge between Parmean court life and her nephew’s adventures in exile. Nothing happens without her, and yet the events she sets in motion are responses to or preparations for someone else. She is as politically cunning as Mosca and consistently returns to the tactic of making herself indispensable to the courts and the men who would otherwise rule her.

Sometimes considered the most psychologically complex character of the novel, Mosca is divided between his reckless love for Gina and his calculating political mind. As a minister in a powdered wig, he becomes young again when the book first introduces him in Milan. He remains both world-weary and hopeful, impassioned and indifferent, throughout the course of the novel. The scene of his jealous rage over the provocative letter from the Prince in Chapter 7 is equal only to Gina’s similarly sleepless night in Chapter 14 for its insight into the torments of inner uncertainty. It reveals a character aware of his own flaws in his attachment to power. Mosca’s relationship to power is not blinding. On the contrary, his clear-sightedness and need to master the political game go hand-in-hand. His “courtier’s soul” makes him at times undesirable to Gina, which is the source of his jealously over a less politically involved and symbolically youthful Fabrizio. Mosca is not unlike his rival courtier, the Marchesa Raversi, in that he is “capable of anything.” At times he maintains the core of his character apart from such tasks as public executions and searches for Liberals under the Prince’s bed. However, Mosca is also incapable of being himself without his involvement in political games. He has thrived in the political waters and feels he cannot live outside of them.