Characterization of the nun of Monza

I'm going to analyze a famous passage taken from a famous novel, Promessi Sposi.

Reading the characterization of the nun of Monza, the first impression I make is of a mysterious woman, gloomy and different from the other nuns. The narrator describes her from far to near, that is he goes from the general to the particular and he uses the way she dresses, her eyes and the ways in which she moves her eyes in different situations. Moreover, he wants to describe the woman globally, so he does not use a text arranged into sequences, but a single block.

Having read the way the narrator describes her, I don't want to go and to know her because she is a mysterious and gloomy figure.

Manzoni tells about the woman using a litote, then saying what she is not instead of what she is and focuses the reader's attention on the strangeness of the nun.

The narrator says that the woman showed 25 years, when instead she had more and that she showed a beauty that in reality she didn't have.

Indeed immediately after Manzoni affirms that her beauty was slammed and faded, that is no transparent, something not clear and old.

Moreover, the fact that before arriving at the parlor where was the nun had to pass a courtyard first, then the room of the farmer and then another courtyard, gave the idea of ​​something precious that was kept hidden, but also of something of dark and mysterious.

These aspects were also underlined by the fact that the nun was standing upright behind two iron gratings, as if she was something untouchable and distant from all human beings.

The colors are important in this characterization; the colors that prevail are white and black, the first symbol of purity and chastity in contrast to the second that indicates evil and the shady. The white also highlights the faded beauty, like something that is about to go bad.

The woman's face was very pale, which is why it was the black eyes and the lips of a rosy faded to stand out.

The very black eyebrows and black eyes whit their movements make me understand the character of the woman. She is a strong woman, who at times looked at others with pride, at other times instead she looked down as if to hide her own faults.

Instead the lips were alive, full of expression and mystery and they too underlined the resolute character of the woman.

She is described as a nun different from the others, indeed she has a lock of hair that comes out of the veil and this shows forgetfulness or contempt of the rule that says that the nuns must keep their hair short after the solemn ceremony of the clothing.

Moreover, her robe is much more close-fitting than that of the others and this suggests that she was a rebellious woman, not conforming to the rules of the convent.

The woman shows herself unhappy and suffering, so much so that the contractions of the forehead reveal pain and disturbance.

In conclusion I would not like to know this woman also because in the whole text, the semantic field is that of pain and something wrong, something sinister.