The Monk (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Matthew Gregory Lewis
- First Published: 1796
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Gothic
- Time of Work: Spanish Inquisition
- Setting: Madrid, Spain
- Genres: Long fiction, Gothic fiction
- Subjects: Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, Ghosts or apparitions, Incest, Rape, Good and evil, Fratricide, parricide, or filicide, Fifteenth century, Catholics or Catholic Church, Devils or demons, Torture, Monasteries, monks, or monasticism, Horror, Spain or Spanish people, Convents or nunneries, Nuns, Nobility, Satan or Satanism, Inquisition, Madrid
- Locales: Madrid, Spain
Characters Discussed
Father Ambrosio, the most virtuous and learned monk in Madrid. He sentences Agnes de Medina to torture and death for adultery, and she calls upon him to remember her fate when he is tempted, as he is by Matilda, a sorceress. Following his seduction by Matilda, the monk ravishes Antonia, a virtuous girl. He is captured and condemned to die, but he sells his soul to Satan for release from prison. Satan releases him and then kills him after telling him that his victims, Antonia and Elvira, were his sister and his mother.
Matilda, a sorceress. She enters...
[The entire page is 633 words long]
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