I’m uncertain if this should just be a direct copy of my presentation or further thoughts on the the topic so I’ve decided to write my further thoughts on the topic and let my powerpoint give my presentation.
The religion of the characters of mysteries of Udolpho is far from the orthodoxy one might expect from the France or Italy in the period she was writing. The characters do at time encounter religious figures and symbols but they are judged based on their beauty or character rather than their piety. In the early travels of Emily and her father, religion takes on a dual nature of sanctuary and danger. The perfect example of this is when they view a stone cross and are struck by the beauty of it but at the same time Emily pictures Bandetti pouring forth from it to attack them. When they are stuck between towns and trying desperately to find shelter for the night, it is the ringing of the convent bells which leads them to safety.
The convent which Emily stays in upon the death of St. Aubert is the point which best displays Radcliffe’s portrayal of the religion of the characters of Mysteries of Udolpho. The convent itself is both a source of comfort and of pain to Emily as she rests there to recover from his death. While the quiet atmosphere of the convent and the kindness of the nuns are soothing to her, she is also driven to great pain as she risks a midnight visit to his grave and proximity to him keeps his death fresh in her mind. There is no real religious connection to the nuns beyond their occupation. One might think that of anywhere in the novel, religion could be found in a stay at a convent but this is not the case. The treatment of the nuns and the Abbess are much the same as the treatment of the villagers where St Aubert dies. They are praised for their simple rural kindness rather than their pious kindness.
The question the becomes why does Radcliffe place her characters in religious settings without addressing any of the religion. Emily would’ve most likely been a Catholic and her willingness to stay among nuns furthers this belief. When she is staying at the convent though she does not go to Mass with them and only attends the funeral service for her father. One likely cause of this is that Radcliffe would’ve been an English Protestant and therefore would’ve been at the least uncomfortable with Catholicism if not downright disgusted by it. This novel doesn’t display much anti-Catholicism but in her other novels, like The Italian, she is vicious in her treatment of Catholic figures. Since Mysteries of Udolpho came before The Italian there’s a chance she had been neutral earlier or that she was working her way up to the treatment in The Italian and started with indifference. Personnally I believe that the reason religion was given this kind of treatment in Mysteries of Udolpho is just that it wasn’t her focus for that novel. Yes Emily would’ve been Catholic but her goals in writing that novel were not related to religion and therefore religion receives little treatment. With The Italian, she set out to include religion which explains her much harsher treatment of it.
