Miniature Symbol Analysis

St. Aubert owns a miniature portrait of a mysterious woman (who turns out to be the Marchioness De Villeroi, his sister who died young), and this miniature symbolizes how the mysteries of the past continue to affect the present. When Emily first sees her father with the miniature of the Marchioness, the Marchioness has been dead for decades, and so the miniature demonstrates how the dead live on in the memory of the living. It also illustrates how art can preserve the past and endure beyond a person’s lifespan (again providing a reminder of mortality, like the black veil). Indeed, as a historical novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho is itself a work of art bringing the past back to life, showing how the events of the 1500s remained relevant in the 1700s and beyond.

Ultimately, although the mysterious miniature of the Marchioness De Villeroi seems to be nefarious, suggesting that St. Aubert had an affair with a married woman in the past, it turns out to have an innocent explanation: the late Marchioness is St. Aubert’s sister. The Marchioness died not due to any supernatural causes, but due to the scheming of the Marquis De Villeroi and Signora Laurentini. Similarly, when a miniature of Emily (who looks very similar to the Marchioness) is stolen, Emily initially suspects that there might be some supernatural involvement. But once again, the mystery has an earthly explanation: Emily’s would-be suitor Du Pont stole the miniature. While the novel suggests that God works in mysterious ways, the miniatures offer the promise that humans can unravel at least some of these mysteries without resorting to superstitious or supernatural explanations.