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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Leopard, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Survival and Decline
The Inevitability of Change
Class Conflict and Revolution
Love vs. Sensuality
Summary
Analysis
In May 1860, the Salina family has just finished reciting the Rosary and are now going their separate ways. The household members depart the ornately decorated drawing room, where there are mythical figures painted on the ceiling. Deities like Jove, Mars, and Venus hold up the armorial shield of the Leopard.
The life of the Salinas, a noble Sicilian family, is marked by seemingly timeless religious rituals. Yet the traditional Catholic observance is overshadowed by images of ancient Roman gods that surround the family symbol—suggesting that the Salinas’ primary allegiance is to their ancient family lineage.
Themes
As the Salina children and the small, domineering Princess depart, the huge Prince, Fabrizio, towers over them all. He is tall and strong with a fair complexion, owing to his half-German parentage. He got his authoritarianism, his rigid morals, and his abstract mind from the same source. The culture of Palermo, Sicily, has slightly relaxed the latter tendencies, making the Prince arrogant, unusually scrupulous, and contemptuous of his more pragmatic family and friends. His hobby is astronomy, and he almost believes the stars obey his mathematical calculations.
The Prince is a paradox: he is deeply loyal to his Sicilian heritage, yet he isn’t fully Sicilian. He is strict and intellectual, yet Sicilian culture has softened these “German” traits, making him both markedly Sicilian and someone who feels like an outsider among other Sicilians. This “in-between” characterization will shape the Prince’s reactions to Sicily’s social changes throughout the novel.
Themes
The combination of his pride and intellect (from his mother) and a sensual and irresponsible streak (from his father) have combined to make Prince Fabrizio discontent. He is watching his class and his family fall into decline, but he feels powerless to stop it.
The Prince’s personality is an unstable combination of competing traits, which mirrors the political instability in Sicily at this time. The Prince is perceptive enough to see that Sicily is changing and that this will hurt his family’s prestige, but being entangled in Sicilian culture himself, he cannot change the course of events.
Themes
The Prince follows his excitable Great Dane, Bendicò, into the enclosed garden. The garden has a muted, dreamy atmosphere and a pungent aroma. The delicate French roses droop in the heat. The Prince is reminded of an occurrence a month ago, when a soldier crawled into the garden to die after being wounded in a skirmish with rebels. The soldier’s face often haunts the Prince’s thoughts, seeming to wonder what purpose he died for. The Prince isn’t sure.
The palace garden like Sicily in miniature: it’s hazy, half-asleep, and a place where plants and even people die. The soldier’s death is the novel’s first example of the Prince’s lifelong obsession with change and the death of his own family and class. The dead soldier’s face reflects the Prince’s own ambivalence about Sicily’s changing political situation.
Themes
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The Prince’s brother-in-law, Màlvica, who often speaks for their circle of friends, would claim that the soldier had died for the King. The King represents “order, continuity, decency, honor,” the Church, and everything that “The Sect” rejects. These ideals stir the Prince’s heart, and yet, something about these words doesn’t ring true to him. He believes that recent kings have not lived up to the monarchy’s ideals, which in turn makes him question the legitimacy of the monarchy.
Just as the Prince doesn’t fully fit into Sicilian culture, he also doesn’t completely align with his fellow nobles’ views. In 1860, Italian nationalists and sympathetic rebels were gathering to annex and unify several Italian kingdoms, including Sicily. (“The Sect” was a catch-all term referring to liberals and Freemasons.) The King is sympathetic to the Sicilian monarchy, yet he also questions whether the monarchy truly lives up to the ideals that his peers take for granted.
Themes
The Prince thinks about his frequent audiences with King Ferdinand. He recalls a particular meeting with the King at Caserta when, from behind a mountain of official papers, Ferdinand made small talk about Fabrizio’s family and scientific achievements and then questioned him about popular sentiments regarding the Viceroy of Sicily. The Prince declines to give specifics, having never heard either liberals or royalists say anything good.
Ferdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859, a member of the Bourbon dynasty; he was known for resisting revolutionaries and dissidents. From Ferdinand’s conversation with the Prince, the king seems to be nervous about changing popular sentiments. Wanting to stay on his king’s good side, the Prince refrains from telling the him that nobody, liberal or conservative, favors him—the monarchy’s position is precarious.
Themes
The Prince recalls that on another visit, King Ferdinand had been less cordial and had scolded him to keep his nephew Tancredi in line. Even then, the Prince could see that the monarchy was in decline—but even if the Piedmontese took power, the Prince couldn’t see what would really change, beyond the dialect spoken. Therefore, the Prince is confused about where his loyalties should lie. He knows that supporting the status quo would probably lead to more violence.
The Prince’s young nephew is sympathetic to the Sicilian rebels, and the Prince hasn’t stopped him from joining revolutionary activities. Yet the Prince doubts that revolution (which would unite Sicily with the Piedmontese, or mainland Italy) will create any lasting changes. He neither supports change nor desires to resist it—again, he’s caught between stability and change.
Themes
That night, the household (14 people, including children, governesses, and tutors) has a typically grand, albeit slightly shabby, dinner. As the Prince ladles out soup for his family, his hand shakes; his 16-year-old son, Francesco Paolo, arrived late, and the Prince is angry. Though the Prince doesn’t explode, his anger smolders throughout dinner. At one point, the Princess strokes his hand soothingly, and the Prince feels a surge of desire. However, this prompts him to picture Mariannina and to order a carriage to town. The Princess, tearful, tries to dissuade the Prince from going into Palermo in these violent times, but the Prince irritably rebuffs her. As the carriage departs, his priest Father Pirrone accompanying him, the Prince hears his wife having a hysterical fit upstairs.
The condition of the Salinas’ dining room shows their unstable position—they uphold a noble lineage, yet their riches aren’t what they used to be. Prince’s projects his discomfort with the political situation onto his family, while his habit of sexual unfaithfulness is a way of avoiding uncomfortable realities at home. The tension between married love and sensual lust, itself a source of instability, will trouble the Prince and other characters throughout the book. The Princess’s reaction and the family priest’s presence imply that the Prince’s behavior is an open secret.
Themes
As they travel to Palermo, they pass the Falconeri villa, property of the Prince’s nephew Tancredi. Tancredi is the son of the Prince’s sister; Tancredi’s father had squandered the Falconeri fortune before his death. At that point, Tancredi became the Prince’s ward, and the Prince developed a fondness for the fun-loving yet thoughtful young man, who’s now 21. He wishes that Tancredi could be his heir instead of his eldest son, Paolo, who’s only interested in horses. Nevertheless, Tancredi has become sympathetic to the “Sect” and the Prince, who funds the young man out of his own pockets and has had to go to some lengths to keep him out of trouble with the royal authorities. The Prince, blinded by fondness for the boy, blames “the times.”
Tancredi’s situation shows that some Sicilian families were already suffering the results of decline, which the Prince tries to patch up as best he can. Tancredi’s enthusiasm for liberalism is a source of tension for the Prince; he doesn’t approve, but he’s also invested in Tancredi’s personal success, since Tancredi seems more likely to live up to the family legacy than the Prince’s own sons are. “The times” are an abstract entity onto which the Prince can project blame for Tancredi’s political activities, again avoiding interpersonal tension. The abstraction of “the times” also suggests that the political upheaval happening in Sicily still doesn’t seem real to the Prince.
Themes
As the carriage approaches Palermo, Father Pirrone points out the rebel campfires on a nearby mountain. As they enter the city, dozens of convents and monasteries come into view, giving Palermo a gloomy atmosphere. After they pass through a soldiers’ patrol, Father Pirrone is dropped off at the Jesuit house, and the Prince arrives at his city palace. From there, he walks through “a quarter of ill repute” toward Mariannina’s house, all the while thinking that he needs to confess to Father Pirrone tomorrow. He justifies his behavior to himself on the grounds that if he didn’t satisfy his nagging lust, he’d end up sinning worse. How, after all, can he find satisfaction with his devoutly religious wife these days? Her prudishness is the real sin, the Prince thinks.
Rebel activity is right on the edges of Palermo, its tension contrasting with the unchanging solidity of the city’s religious institutions. The Prince largely ignores this tension, however, preoccupying himself with internal tensions instead—namely, his choice to have sex with a prostitute even though he is married. The Prince exonerates himself on the grounds that his wife is too religious—a self-deluding technique that parallels the Prince’s delusion of stability in Sicily.
Themes
Two hours later, the Prince and the priest head home. Father Pirrone has heard a rumor of an impending Piedmontese invasion of Italy and is worried. The Prince, meanwhile, feels physically satisfied but a bit disgusted with himself. When they get home, the Prince is touched by the sight of his sleeping wife. Troubled and unable to sleep himself, he has sex with Maria Stella before dawn.
It's the eve of Sicily’s revolution—Garibaldi’s troops (known as The Thousand, or the Redshirts) landed on Sicily on May 11, 1860. The fact that the Prince spends this evening indulging his own desires suggests that he’s oblivious to the reality of approaching change; his relations with the Princess also indicate that he’s experiencing confusion between love and lust.
Themes
The next morning Tancredi comes in while the Prince is shaving. Having seen the Prince in Palermo last night, Tancredi teases his uncle, which the Prince ignores. Tancredi reveals that he’s preparing to join the rebels in the hills, and the Prince, concerned, pictures the soldier’s corpse in the Salinas’ garden. Tancredi explains that now is the time to act—after all, if they want things to remain the same, some things must change. Moved by these words, the Prince gives Tancredi some money.
Tancredi takes a very different view of the Redshirts than the Prince does. While the Prince downplays change, Tancredi affirms that it’s a good thing. He even makes the idea of change palatable to his uncle by describing it as something that will reinforce existing social structures—an interpretation that the Prince favors.
Themes
The Prince goes to his estate office. Paintings of the several Salina estates decorate its walls. The cheerful paintings reveal mostly superficial details, giving an impression of ornamental luxury but little substance. Pushing aside unappealing mounds of business papers, the Prince begins reading an astronomy journal. He’s soon interrupted by his accountant, Don Ciccio Ferrara, who is a liberal. When Don Ciccio makes an optimistic remark about the likelihood of revolution, the Prince is dismayed. He sees Ferrara as representing the rising class, and he thinks the man is stupid for believing that a new Sicily is about to be born.
The superficial details of the paintings suggest that the state of the nobility has little substance either—it has a veneer of luxury but little power or identity of its own. Typically, the Prince pushes aside tangible reality in favor of abstract ideas. But he can’t avoid it for long—political change, through his employees, comes to find him whether he likes it or not. The Prince responds in a defensive manner, believing that Ferrara represents the underclass’s ignorance.
Themes
A bit later, the Prince’s agent, Russo, comes in. To the Prince, Russo, too, seems representative of the up-and-coming class. Like Don Ciccio, he’s optimistic about revolution and doesn’t believe there will be much violence. When Russo refers to the better times that are coming for “poor folk” like himself, the Prince smiles, knowing that Russo is in the process of purchasing an estate. The Prince feels that all these “petty little local liberals” are just looking for the opportunity to make more money. This series of conversations—with Tancredi, Don Ciccio, and Russo—confirms the Prince’s suspicion that the revolution will be mostly display and playacting. All the liberals really want is to take the place of the gentry. Everything else will mostly remain the same.
Like the previous visitor, Ferrara, Russo gives The Prince insight into the lower classes’ mindset during the revolution. While Ferrara seemed simply ignorant, Russo seems like a hypocrite in the Prince’s eyes because he’s striving to gain wealth while supporting more democratic political aims. This combination of perspectives confirms the Prince’s self-serving view of the political situation—that is, that nothing will really change. Class conflict, he thinks, is just a self-perpetuating cycle of jockeying for position and property; therefore, Sicily’s social structure will remain intact.
Themes
A few minutes later, the Prince escapes into his garden with Bendicò. He can’t help worrying what will become of the often despised monarchy, yet he knows that other countries, like France, are now thriving under supposedly “illegitimate” rulers. The Prince decides to distract himself with astronomy. He climbs to the estate’s observatory and finds Father Pirrone, who assumes that the Prince has come for confession. When the Prince points out that his priest already knows what he did last night, Father Pirrone huffily returns to his astronomy calculations.
The Prince still feels nagged by political questions—he has always been loyal to the monarchy, yet he sees evidence of other countries surviving after dynasties have been toppled. The Prince seeks comfort in something that never seems to change: the stars. When his priest tries to remind him of a glaring inconsistency in his life—his indulgence of his sexual appetites—the Prince shirks this reality too.
Themes
The Prince, feeling calm and reassured by the morning’s political conclusions, looks down at the Sicilian countryside. He tells Father Pirrone that it would take a lot of Victor Emmanuels to change the magic of Sicily, but the priest is not reassured. Father Pirrone argues that the gentry will compromise with the liberals and the Masons while Church property is seized and divided up, leaving many poor dependents destitute. The Prince is silent for a while. Finally, he points out that, unlike the Church, the gentry have not been promised perpetual existence—they will take whatever extension of life they can get. Father Pirrone is just relieved that the Prince isn’t angry with him, and he reminds his friend to come to confession on Saturday. The two men are soon happily absorbed in their work on an astronomy paper, and these abstractions make the Prince feel much more connected to reality than his everyday life does.
Victor Emmanuel was the first king of the unified Italian state, supported by Garibaldi. After taking Tancredi’s words at face value—that revolution will allow things to remain the same—the Prince tells himself that Sicily is stable. Father Pirrone, who is not a member of the nobility, thinks that he’s deluding himself. But the Prince argues that no matter what the revolutionaries might do to the Catholic Church, God has promised that the Church will never be overcome. The nobility have no such guarantee. In a way, then, both the Prince and his priest are placated by their belief in stability, regardless of evidence that the world is changing. Their absorption in astronomy, studying extraterrestrial bodies that have remained constant for billions of years, is further proof of this.
Themes
At lunch, the Prince is calmer, and the meal has a more relaxed and cheerful air than usual. Only his daughter Concetta appears worried about the missing Tancredi, and the Prince realizes that she must have feelings for her cousin. The meal concludes with a giant rum jelly (the Prince’s favorite) in the shape of a castle, and he delights in watching his family demolish it. Back in his office after lunch, the Prince receives some cheeses, slaughtered lambs, and chickens from his tenants. He is revolted by the blood spilling from the lamb carcasses.
Concetta’s feelings for Tancredi, which the Prince takes in stride for the time being, will become more important to the Salina family as the story develops. Meanwhile, the family’s devouring of the castle jelly is ironic: it symbolizes the nobility’s oblivious self-destruction in the midst of rapid social change. The Prince’s disgust at the sight of blood also suggests his hatred of the suffering and death that comes along with violent revolution.
Themes
Later, the Prince finds his son Paolo in his study, clearly having worked up his courage to speak to his father. Paolo wants to know how they should treat Tancredi when they next see him. The Prince is annoyed, sensing that personal jealousy is in play more than political disapproval. He tells Paolo that Tancredi is fighting for the family’s future, and that Paolo should go back to his horses. He dismisses the boy and takes a nap. When he wakes up, he receives a newspaper and a note from Màlvica. The Piedmontese have landed, under Garibaldi’s command, and Màlvica’s family is fleeing Sicily. The Prince thinks that his brother-in-law is panicking foolishly. He gathers with his family in the drawing room and leads them again in the Rosary.
Like most members of the nobility, Paolo doesn’t approve of the revolution and assumes that this will affect the family’s treatment of Tancredi for joining the rebels. The Prince is irritated by his son’s response because, in his eyes, Tancredi is doing something proactive to help secure the family’s future, whereas Paolo—typical of most Sicilians—isn’t. Similarly, because the Prince doesn’t believe the revolution is really changing anything, he interprets his brother-in-law’s behavior as mere cowardice, not a meaningful response to events. The chapter ends as it began, with the customary Rosary. A revolution has taken place, yet in the Prince’s eyes, everything should go on as before.
Themes
