Beneath a Scarlet Sky

by

Mark Sullivan

Anna Marta Character Analysis

Anna Marta is the love of Pino Lella’s life. Pino first meets Anna by happenstance while roaming the streets of Milan. Pino asks Anna out on a date, and she accepts but fails to show up. Pino doesn’t see Anna again until he becomes a driver for General Leyers. On his first trip to Leyers’s home, Pino is greeted by Anna at the door. He learns that Anna works as a maid to Leyers’s mistress, Dolly Stottlemeyer—and this, of course, means that Pino will see Anna quite frequently. One day, while Leyers is away, Pino looks around his apartment for his valise key and is caught by Anna. Pino tells Anna what he is doing, and Anna decides to help him. From this moment forward, Anna and Pino begin falling in love with one another. At first, they treat their relationship as an escape from the war, but eventually Anna becomes fully invested in helping Pino. Additionally, Anna reveals her tragic background to Pino; her father and former husband are dead, and her mother has disowned her. Despite their tragic circumstances, Anna and Pino still manage to fall deeply in love, and near the end of the war, Pino asks Anna to marry him. Unfortunately, their marriage never happens. Toward the end of the novel, Anna is treated as a Nazi collaborator because she works for Dolly and is executed by a partisan firing squad.

Anna Marta Quotes in Beneath a Scarlet Sky

The Beneath a Scarlet Sky quotes below are all either spoken by Anna Marta or refer to Anna Marta. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Like all the pharaohs, emperors, and tyrants before him, Il Duce had seen his empire rise only to crumble. Indeed, by that late-spring afternoon, power was bleeding from Benito Mussolini’s grasp like joy from a young widowed heart.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

“I am going to meet a beautiful girl today,” Pino said, wagging his finger at the scarlet, threatening sky. “And we are going to fall in mad, tragic love and go on grand adventures with music and food and wine and intrigue every day, all day long.”

Related Characters: Pino Lella (speaker), Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Carletto Beltramini
Related Symbols: The Scarlet Sky
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

The screen froze in close-up on Astaire and Hayworth dancing cheek to cheek, their lips and smiles to the panicking crowd.

As the film melted up on the screen, antiaircraft guns cracked outside the theater, and the first unseen Allied bombers cleared their bays, releasing an overture of fire and destruction that played down on Milan.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

They lost sight of Mrs. Napolitano and the others almost immediately, but they could hear her playing beautifully, with passion, each note carrying through the thin, crisp, alpine air. They reached the tree line and put on their skis as she took the tempo up again, casting forth the melody of the triumphant aria like some radio wave that hit Pino in his heart and vibrated in his soul.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Mrs. Napolitano
Page Number: 140-141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

But he felt good about it, elated actually. Fooling the Nazis like that made him feel empowered. In his own way, he was fighting back. They were all fighting back, part of the growing resistance. Italy was not German. Italy could never be German.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Walter Rauff
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“I’m not ready to reveal my scars to you. I don’t want you to see me human and flawed and whole. I want this . . . us . . . to be a fantasy we can share, a diversion from the war.”

Related Characters: Anna Marta (speaker), Pino Lella
Page Number: 250
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“It would be surprising if you didn’t hate me for what I’ve had to do today. A part of me hates myself. But I have orders. Winter is coming. My country is under siege. Without this food, my people will starve. So here in Italy, and in your eyes, I’m a criminal. Back home, I’ll be an unsung hero. Good. Evil. It’s all a question of perspective, is it not?”

Related Characters: General Leyers (speaker), Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Walter Rauff
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

The crowd around him bellowed and jeered its approval while he just stood there, hunch shouldered, whimpering at the agony that possessed him, so powerful it almost made him think it couldn’t be real, that his beloved was not lying there in a pool of blood, that he’d not watched her take the bullet, that he’d not watched life flee her in a blink, that he’d not heard her begging him to save her.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta
Page Number: 427
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Pino would remember little of the journey. Milan, Italy, the world itself had become unhinged for him, disjointed and savage. He watched the scarred city as if from afar, not at all a part of the teeming life that was beginning to return after the Nazis’ retreat.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Albert, Michele Lella
Page Number: 444
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

The general looked at him without remorse and added, “If there’s anyone directly responsible for Dolly and Anna’s death, Pino, it’s you.”

Related Characters: General Leyers (speaker), Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Dolly Stottlemeyer
Page Number: 479
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anna Marta Quotes in Beneath a Scarlet Sky

The Beneath a Scarlet Sky quotes below are all either spoken by Anna Marta or refer to Anna Marta. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Like all the pharaohs, emperors, and tyrants before him, Il Duce had seen his empire rise only to crumble. Indeed, by that late-spring afternoon, power was bleeding from Benito Mussolini’s grasp like joy from a young widowed heart.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

“I am going to meet a beautiful girl today,” Pino said, wagging his finger at the scarlet, threatening sky. “And we are going to fall in mad, tragic love and go on grand adventures with music and food and wine and intrigue every day, all day long.”

Related Characters: Pino Lella (speaker), Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Carletto Beltramini
Related Symbols: The Scarlet Sky
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

The screen froze in close-up on Astaire and Hayworth dancing cheek to cheek, their lips and smiles to the panicking crowd.

As the film melted up on the screen, antiaircraft guns cracked outside the theater, and the first unseen Allied bombers cleared their bays, releasing an overture of fire and destruction that played down on Milan.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

They lost sight of Mrs. Napolitano and the others almost immediately, but they could hear her playing beautifully, with passion, each note carrying through the thin, crisp, alpine air. They reached the tree line and put on their skis as she took the tempo up again, casting forth the melody of the triumphant aria like some radio wave that hit Pino in his heart and vibrated in his soul.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Mrs. Napolitano
Page Number: 140-141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

But he felt good about it, elated actually. Fooling the Nazis like that made him feel empowered. In his own way, he was fighting back. They were all fighting back, part of the growing resistance. Italy was not German. Italy could never be German.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Mimo Lella, Walter Rauff
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“I’m not ready to reveal my scars to you. I don’t want you to see me human and flawed and whole. I want this . . . us . . . to be a fantasy we can share, a diversion from the war.”

Related Characters: Anna Marta (speaker), Pino Lella
Page Number: 250
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“It would be surprising if you didn’t hate me for what I’ve had to do today. A part of me hates myself. But I have orders. Winter is coming. My country is under siege. Without this food, my people will starve. So here in Italy, and in your eyes, I’m a criminal. Back home, I’ll be an unsung hero. Good. Evil. It’s all a question of perspective, is it not?”

Related Characters: General Leyers (speaker), Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Walter Rauff
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

The crowd around him bellowed and jeered its approval while he just stood there, hunch shouldered, whimpering at the agony that possessed him, so powerful it almost made him think it couldn’t be real, that his beloved was not lying there in a pool of blood, that he’d not watched her take the bullet, that he’d not watched life flee her in a blink, that he’d not heard her begging him to save her.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta
Page Number: 427
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Pino would remember little of the journey. Milan, Italy, the world itself had become unhinged for him, disjointed and savage. He watched the scarred city as if from afar, not at all a part of the teeming life that was beginning to return after the Nazis’ retreat.

Related Characters: Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Albert, Michele Lella
Page Number: 444
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

The general looked at him without remorse and added, “If there’s anyone directly responsible for Dolly and Anna’s death, Pino, it’s you.”

Related Characters: General Leyers (speaker), Pino Lella, Anna Marta, Dolly Stottlemeyer
Page Number: 479
Explanation and Analysis: