Literary Devices in The Mysteries of Udolpho
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Setting is where it's at in The Mysteries of Udolpho. Although Em moves around over miles of the French and Italian countryside and several chateaus, we've got to give some credit to the ultimate s...
Narrator Point of View
Emily may be the star of this story, but our unnamed narrator likes to prance through the minds of a whole bunch of characters in The Mysteries of Udolpho. Take this piece of info from St...
Genre
Add up one terrifying castle, two kidnapping attempts, multiple ghost sightings, and a perilous escape, and you've got the makings of an epic adventure in your hands. The fun just doesn't stop for...
Tone
Although the narrator sometimes seems to be poking fun at certain characters (Annette's precious sequins come to mind), the predominant tone is dark and uncertain. As Emily wanders around the castl...
Writing Style
Slow as MolassesYep, we threw out the word "helter-skelter" to describe the combination of dreamy landscape descriptions and frantic moments of terror. Sure, we get lulled by the travelogue episode...
What's Up With the Title?
The Mysteries of Udolpho seems pretty clear from the outset. When Emily arrives at Udolpho, she quickly discovers that tons of mysteries are just waiting to be unraveled. But these aren't exactly t...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns,And, as the portals open to receive me,Her voice, in sullen echoes through the courts,Tells of a nameless deed.Ann Radcliffe loves a good epigraph, b...
What's Up With the Ending?
Radcliffe sews up many of the mysteries by the story's end, leaving us with one big question mark about Emily and Valancourt. And we get a funny word to end the book: Em and Valancourt are "restore...
Tough-o-Meter
It's not all secrets and suspense, that's for sure. Get ready for some very detailed descriptions of trees, mountains, and just about every kind of landscape imaginable, not to mention some pretty...
Plot Analysis
Ch-ch-ch-changes at the ChateauEmily St. Aubert and her loving parents live together at La Vallée, a pretty sweet chateau in France. They're happy as clams until a pretty nasty illness hits the t...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
When we first meet Emily St. Aubert, she's young, naïve, and totally clueless about the surrounding world. But she's also got a healthy dose of curiosity about it, to the extent that she's const...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Emily St. Aubert gets yanked out of her cushy life at La Vallée when her mom dies and her dad takes her on a trip all over France. Em's dad also dies on the trip, but not before she meets a hunky...
Trivia
She's sort of like Salinger: Ann Radcliffe unexpectedly stopped writing later in her life. She was also super reclusive. (Source.) Just like Signora Laurentini, Radcliffe was rumored to be de...
Steaminess Rating
Sorry, Shmoopers. Other than the lustful glances Valancourt shoots Emily every so often, this is a strictly no-touching kind of novel.
Allusions
Beattie, The Minstrel (1.3.3), (1.3.15), (1.6.1), (1.7.1).William Collins, "Ode to a Lady on the Death of Colonel Ross in the Action of Fontenoy" (1.8.1), (1.11.1).Goldsmith, The Traveller (2....