Propuesta de Gestión de Pasivos a Corto Plazo

Barbara, and her mother, Emma. Long before her daughter, Emma has started to be haunted by the protagonists of the biblical paintings in her house and, in particular, by the portrait of an ancestor-priest, Federico Vaira.198 One day, the image of the priest starts haunting Barbara too. He first appears to the six-year-old child one afternoon while she is eating in the garden. Emma immediately understands the identity of the priest, ‗uno vestito buffo‘, to whom Barbara is talking. She never questions the girl‘s sincerity and throws herself into a desperate and ferocious defence of her daughter, first arguing and smashing the portrait of Vaira, then sending her to a boarding school so as to protect her from her fate. She believes, wrongly, that she can prevent Barbara‘s death by an act of will, and states ‗ma tu non devi morire, perché io non voglio‘.199 But the priest will appear to Barbara again on a school trip, ultimately causing her death. Although Barbara knows neither her

197 _{Ghezzo, ‗Fiamme e follia‘, p. 37.}

198 _{The biblical painting and the portrait of Monsignor Federico Vaira on the walls of Emma‘s house}

at Monte Ignoso, come to life at night when they carry out their century-long acts of violence, abuse and indecency. Murder, rape, treason and cheating occur amongst the protagonists of the paintings until daylight. As her mother before her, Emma is attracted by the paintings at night, becoming an accomplice of their misdoings. However, she is conscious of the negative influence they are exerting,

forcing her to follow their examples and be a ‗donnaccia‘, Masino, Monte Ignoso, p. 21. See Masino,

Monte Ignoso, pp. 21-22: ‗Credevo di essere malata e non sapevo guarirmi e non soffrivo. Ora schianto di rabbia perché lo so che è lui, che sono loro, che mi torturano così. Hanno cominciato prima ancora che io nascessi. La mia mamma, la tua nonna, Barbara, li guardava quand‘era incinta e la incantavano. Lei, ogni sera il marito (ma erano loro invece, ora lo so) la obbligava a essere una di queste donne, Esther o un‘altra. Non posso dirti quello che facevano. Si mettevano in terra, qui davanti. Io sono nata così. Da allora, sempre, tutta questa gente mi è stata addosso. Io entro nei quadri, loro ne escono. Di notte. Tuo padre mai. Ma l‘altro sì. Che cosa ti sto raccontando Barbara? L‘altro non c‘entra. È questo prete maledetto che mi spinge a farti male. Apposta, perché mi vuole‘. Emma lays on herself the blame for Barbara‘s hallucinations and seeing the priest, she feels guilty as if she

had contaminated her daughter by passing over her ‗sangue malato‘, Masino, Monte Ignoso, p. 64. In

her struggle to save Barbara, Emma even invokes God and states: ‗Io non sono più una donna. Sono una forza di amore materno: una tua forza. Sono un tuo miracolo e anche una dimostrazione. Se mi

distruggi, distruggi la volontà materna, la concezione‘, Masino, Monte Ignoso, p. 103.

71 mother‘s secrets, nor about the pictures, she seems to accept the idea that she is part of a wider plan. She precociously seems to understand that her life is linked to the red house of Monte Ignoso and asks: ‗Sei proprio sicura, che vivrò ancora, oppure ho già vissuto tutto, qui?‘.200 Once at boarding school, she seeks comfort in the memories of her garden, her hortus conclusus, but soon the contact with reality, with a world she neither knows nor loves, ends up by becoming a prison for her. Emma finally accepts her defeat in the struggle against the supernatural and Barbara, on her deathbed, once again proves to be, even though not completely, aware of the fact that it is her fate to die:

– Mammina, bisogna dirgli di farmi morire subito. Non posso più soffrire.

– A chi, Barbara? A chi, bisogna dirlo?

 A lui, mamma. Io non so come si chiama. Mamma cara, uccidimi te.

Emma gettò un altro urlo, lacerante. Non se ne accorse neppure. Le

era nato su dal ventre, come nasce dagli occhi lo sguardo. (Monte

Ignoso, p. 136)

In the passage quoted above, Masino once again presents infanticide in a positive way: it is Barbara herself who asks her mother to put an end to her life. Unlike Bernardo in ‗Fame‘, however, Emma does not find the strength to kill her daughter. She is under the illusion that she can fight against and defeat their destiny, the presence of which is not only perceivable in connection with the events in the lives of the protagonists, but also throughout the novel; Masino, in fact, skilfully depicts Monte Ignoso as a sinister place cursed by an omen of impending death. The dominant colours are the red of fire and blood and the darkness of shadows. The reference to fire hinted at in the name, ‗Ignoso‘, and its nature (it is a volcano)

72 metaphorically refers to the ‗vampe incendiarie presaghe di distruzione e di morte‘,201

a sentence which I have used as a heading for this subsection. According to Ghezzo, Monte Ignoso, characterised by a devastating fury and a feral carnality where the distinctions between life and death, folly and reason, love and incest are blurred, mirrors the iconic violence of a biblical microcosm.202

2.4.2 Si era dovuto contentare di stracciare un solo minuscolo bambino:203