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Benito Mussolini was the real-life dictator of Italy during World War II. Several times throughout the novel, Leyers and Pino visit Mussolini’s villa, and Leyers uses Pino to translate. Over the course of their several meetings, Mussolini becomes increasingly desperate and delusional about the state of the war and his own power. At the end of the novel, Mussolini is executed, and his body is brought to Milan, where it is desecrated by an angry Milanese mob.
Benito Mussolini Quotes in Beneath a Scarlet Sky
The Beneath a Scarlet Sky quotes below are all either spoken by Benito Mussolini or refer to Benito Mussolini. 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:
).
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:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32
Quotes
Someone put a toy scepter in Mussolini’s hand. Then a woman old enough to have been the crone in Dolly’s apartment building waddled out. She squatted over Il Duce’s mistress and pissed on her face.
Pino was repulsed, but the crowd went feral, sinister, and depraved. People were laughing hysterically, cheering, and feeding on the anarchy. Others began shouting for more desecrations while ropes and chains were being rigged. A woman darted forward with a pistol and put five rounds in Mussolini’s skull, which provoked another round of jeers and catcalls to beat the bodies, to tear the flesh from their bones.
Get the entire Beneath a Scarlet Sky LitChart as a printable PDF.
Benito Mussolini Quotes in Beneath a Scarlet Sky
The Beneath a Scarlet Sky quotes below are all either spoken by Benito Mussolini or refer to Benito Mussolini. 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:
).
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:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32
Quotes
Someone put a toy scepter in Mussolini’s hand. Then a woman old enough to have been the crone in Dolly’s apartment building waddled out. She squatted over Il Duce’s mistress and pissed on her face.
Pino was repulsed, but the crowd went feral, sinister, and depraved. People were laughing hysterically, cheering, and feeding on the anarchy. Others began shouting for more desecrations while ropes and chains were being rigged. A woman darted forward with a pistol and put five rounds in Mussolini’s skull, which provoked another round of jeers and catcalls to beat the bodies, to tear the flesh from their bones.
