Summary
Highlights
The video introduces Giovanni Verga's novel, Mastro-don Gesualdo, published in 1889 as the second novel in the 'Cycle of the Vanquished'.
Gesualdo Motta, a resourceful builder, accumulates wealth. He marries Bianca Trao, a noblewoman fallen on hard times, hoping to gain social acceptance. However, he remains an outsider, disdained by the aristocracy for his humble origins. His wife does not love him, and their daughter Isabella is not his biological child.
Gesualdo is unhappy at home; Isabella is ashamed of him. He is also alienated from his own family, who are jealous of his success. During the 1848 revolts, the nobles direct public anger towards him.
Isabella falls in love with a poor cousin. To rectify the situation, Gesualdo arranges her marriage to the impoverished Duke of Leyra. Later, Gesualdo falls ill with stomach cancer and is taken to Palermo to live with his daughter and son-in-law. His rough manners lead to his isolation, and he dies alone, overlooked by a servant, observing the wasteful spending of the noble household.
The narrative features an impersonal narrator and focuses on Gesualdo's central, tragic figure. Gesualdo finds solace only at his estate in Carrara, with Diodata, his servant and the mother of his children, who genuinely cares for him, unlike his wife and daughter. Gesualdo is portrayed as a self-made man striving for self-realization.