The Leopard

By November, Prince Fabrizio must admit “an odd admiration” (102) for Don Calogero. The intelligent Mayor is not bound by expectations of courtesy and etiquette. Whereas Fabrizio struggles with financial matters, Don Calogero seems to find easy solutions. Facing such difficulties, however, Prince Fabrizio’s reputation will be damaged. He will be forced to deal harshly with those who depend on him, so rumors will spread that the Salina family is in decline. At the same time, Don Calogero seems to revel in the prestige he gains from being associated with the Prince. As a result of their meetings, he has begun to pick up some of Fabrizio’s manners. He is more subtle and softer in his conversations with women, for example, and his entire family begins to seem more refined. They are being elevated from the peasantry into the aristocracy.

Now the fiancée of Tancredi, Angelica visits the Salina family. Tancredi has evidently prepared her for the meeting, and her behavior is “impeccably stage managed” (104). Approaching Fabrizio, she wins him over immediately by referring to him as “nuncle” (105). The entire family warmly welcomes her. She listens to the Prince and Princess tell stories about Tancredi, though she reveals an occasional flash of envy whenever anyone mentions Tancredi in association with other women. Her jealousy is not motivated by love, however. She does not love Tancredi, but she is motivated by ambition and pride. She seems uninterested in Tancredi’s potential future in politics. In the future, this will prove to be untrue, and she will develop a reputation as “one of the most venomous string-pullers” (109) in Italian politics. She is also uninterested in Tancredi’s purported intelligence. Rather, she simply views Tancredi as her entryway into the aristocracy. His positive traits are a secondary concern. Nevertheless, her visit to the Salina family is successful.

While reading Angiola Maria to his family, Prince Fabrizio is interrupted by news of Tancredi’s arrival. Amid the excitement, Concetta calls out for her “darling” (110) but no one hears her. They rush down to meet Tancredi, who is soaked from the rain and dressed in the uniform of the Piedmontese Cavalry. He has brought a guest, whom he introduces as Count Carlo Cavriaghi. As he changes into dry clothes, he sends a note to Angelica.

The family gathers in the warm drawing room, pleased to see military officers up close for the first time. The men are not wearing the famous red shirts of the Garibaldini, Fabrizio notes. They are no longer in the regular army, the men reply. They are now a part of King Emmanuel’s “real army” (113). Carlo behaves flirtatiously with Concetta, making her a gift of a poetry book. She does not respond with the same vigor. At the same time, Tancredi reveals the expensive engagement ring that he has for Angelica. She appears in the doorway, dressed in the cape of a peasant with an anxious expression. Tancredi leaps up and kisses his fiancée. He shows the ring to her, kissing her again as though he is re-invading Sicily.

The plan to return to Palermo is delayed by Tancredi’s unexpected visit. The rain subsides, revealing Sicily’s pleasant weather. A mood of sensuality settles over the estate, affecting everyone, especially Angelica and Tancredi. Angelica visits often. Tancredi hopes to show her the mazy palace complex. The complex is so large that Fabrizio does not know all the “abandoned and uninhabited apartments” (118). Angelica and Tancredi are always accompanied by a chaperone, but they usually find a way to slip off together. They explore the palace and hold hands, even occasionally kissing. One day, they come across rooms in the old guest wing of the complex. There, Tancredi finds strange items such as silver-handled whips. Suspecting that these are the “center from which all the carnal agitation” (122) spreads out across the estate, he will not show them to Angelica.

The next day, the couple finds another whip. This one is different, having belonged to a religious ancestor who whipped himself while staring out at the estates. Since Angelica and he must remain chaste, Tancredi compares her to the whip. The more they explore together, they more they feel a desire to have sex. They never give in to the temptation, however. The days on which they renounce their desire become the best days of all, almost allowing them to experience “real love” (124). This tantalizingly passionate future will never be realized by their marriage.

The sight of the couple emerging from the labyrinthine complex prompts the family to tease them. Each time, Angelica says that she will not follow Tancredi again. Inevitably, she does so the following day. Over dinner, they gossip about other peoples’ relationships. Tancredi’s friend Cavriaghi is still at the house, as Tancredi hopes that Cavriaghi might seduce Concetta and thus appease Tancredi’s own guilt at abandoning her for Angelica, but Concetta loathes Cavriaghi. Tancredi is still puzzled by his cousin’s attitude toward him, which he credits to her family’s leopard-like qualities. Concetta’s sisters—Carolina and Caterina—stare at Cavriaghi longingly.

When the two are alone together in the smoking room, Cavriaghi tells Tancredi that he cannot convince Concetta to love him. Concetta is too proud and reserved—she is too “Sicilian” (127)—Tancredi tells his friend. She will never want to leave Sicily. They discuss Angelica, and Cavriaghi is keen to meet her mother. When he addresses Angelica’s mother as the Baroness, Tancredi is surprised to be reminded that Angelica will have an aristocratic title.

An official letter of visitation arrives for Fabrizio from Aimone Chevalley di Monterzuolo, the Secretary of the Prefecture. He is keen to discuss a political matter with the Prince. The official is a timid man who has come from the mainland. He is not used to Sicily, nor the stories of thieves and brigands that the Sicilians constantly tell him to test his “nervous resistance” (129). He is worried for his safety as Francesco Paolo is sent to collect him from the station. To him, Sicily barely seems like part of the new nation of Italy. Francesco Paolo does his best to reassure the man as he takes him to the estate.

The luxurious estate further unsettles Chevalley. He is not sure whether to be scared of the fearsome Sicilians or intimidated by the aristocratic surroundings. Gradually, he comes to accept that he is not in danger. He begins to relax. The next day, he is taken on a tour by Tancredi and Cavriaghi. They tell him more “horrifying” (131) tales. After one violent tale, Chevalley blames the ineffective police of the old regime and claims that the unified Italy will be able to properly police Sicily. Eventually, Tancredi pities the bureaucrat and tells nicer stories. In the afternoon, Chevalley meets with Prince Fabrizio in the Prince’s study. Following the “happy annexation” (133) of Sicily and Sardinia, he begins, before correcting his phrasing to “glorious union” (133), the Italian government in Turin wants to recruit Sicilians to be the Senators in the new kingdom. Chevalley lists Fabrizio’s qualifications, intending to flatter him, and mentions that he hopes to nominate Prince Fabrizio as a Senator. Fabrizio is unaffected by the flattery. The position is not particularly different from his current status as a Peer of the Kingdom, nor does he know much about the expectations of Senators. Chevalley enthusiastically describes the functions of the newly unified Italian state. The Senate, he says, will debate the legislation of the state as Italy emerges onto the world stage.

Fabrizio states that he will accept the post if it is only an honorary title. Sicily has spent many centuries under foreign rulers, he says, so Sicilians are used to making minute distinctions. As much as he is willing to support the Italian government, he does not want to participate in the governance of the state. No one consulted him or the other Sicilian aristocrats when Garibaldi invaded Sicily, he notes, so he does not know why they are being consulted now. In Sicily, he says, the unforgivable sin is “doing” (136). Sicily is an old culture with 2,500 years’ experience of living in a civilization shaped by outsiders, rather than by Sicilians. Sicily has always been a colony, and he is tired of this. Any well-intentioned move to make Sicily autonomous is now too late. The tired Sicilians only want to sleep, says Fabrizio, and they will hate those who come to wake them.

Fabrizio is unsure what Italy could offer to Sicily. The sensuality, the laziness, and the violence that seem so endemic to Sicilian culture, he says, constitute a Sicilian yearning for death and oblivion. Sicilian culture lags behind for this reason, only becoming interested in new things after they have died. This is reinforced by the physical make up of Sicily itself, a land that veers between heavy rain and drought. The resulting character of Sicilians is one of insularity and inertia.

After listening to the Prince’s speech, Chevalley is taken aback. Fabrizio speaks over his interruptions, noting exceptions to his theory but insisting that anyone who has spent his youth in Sicily is already too engrained in the culture to change. Fabrizio thanks Chevalley for the offer but, since he is tied to the old ruling Bourbons, he cannot accept. He is “ill at ease” (139) in the old world, as well as in the new world. He does not delude himself to believe that he could be useful. The old should now withdraw to observe the young in their capers. In his place, he suggests that Chevalley consider Don Calogero for the position. He praises the Mayor’s intelligence and practicality.

Privately, Chevalley takes pity on Fabrizio’s sense of hopelessness. He also pities the general poverty he has seen in Sicily. He asks the Prince whether Sicilians will want to better their lives. If honest men do not try to bring about this improvement, he tells the Prince, then less trustworthy people like Don Calogero will take advantage and things will not change. Fabrizio responds with a story. Before Garibaldi invaded, he says, a group of British military officers asked to use Fabrizio’s terrace to perform reconnaissance. Looking out over Sicily, they appreciated the scenery but were horrified by the poverty. To the Prince, the beauty and the poverty were intertwined. The Italians will come to Sicily to teach the locals “good manners” (141), he told the officers, but they will fail because each Sicilian believes that he is a god. To Chevalley, Fabrizio says the same: The Sicilians cannot improve their lives, because they already believe that they are perfect. Their vanity is bound to their independence and their feeling of being chained to a great past, which hinders them from participating in the wider world or hoping for improvements to their lives. Other countries have put their feudal past behind them, so feudalism cannot be blamed for Sicily’s troubles. The real culprit, Fabrizio believes, is pride. The pride of the Sicilians, he says, is a “blindness” (142).

The Prince announces that he must prepare for dinner, so the meeting ends. Fabrizio says that he is called to act “the part of a civilized man” (142). The following day, Chevalley is taken back to the station by Fabrizio and Tumeo. The square at the center of Donnafugata is strewn with trash, picked apart by stray dogs. Tired men drag themselves from their homes in search of work. Chevalley believes that the new Italian state can help this poverty. Fabrizio disagrees. The leopards (such as himself) and the lions, he says, may be replaced by hyenas and jackals, but they will always think of themselves as superior.