La monaca di Monza

The first element that I  notice is that the idea we are given about the nun comes in direct speech (inverted commas are used) from the point of view of  the boatman. So this is an indirect way to learn about the nun because we can't listen to her own words. So, the idea we get is filtered by the boatman's words (difference between the technique of telling and showing. Showing is when the reader learns about the character from his/her own words. Telling is when the reader knows about the character from an external, indirect point of view). This is the strategy of reputation, when the reader learns about the character from other people's words. 

The first important feature as for the lexical choice is the word 'signora'. In this case, the boatman's words underline a status, he uses the words 'signora' because he wants to underline that she comes from an aristocratic class, she comes from the aristocracy and immediately afterwards always in the direct words of the boatman we have another important point, an additional strategy from the point of view of the narrator, because he reports the boatman's words who tells the reader that she is a nun but she is not an ordinary nun. He also adds  additional information using a litote (a litote is a figure of speech that tries to define somebody telling us what that somebody is not: lei non è male). She is not la badessa nor the prioress. These lexical choices convey the idea that the boatman doesn't find it so easy to define la monaca di Monza, he's trying to find the correct words which implies, for the intelligent reader, that he's going to read about a complex character since a simple character could be defined very easily. 

When he uses the expression 'anzi a quel che dicono è una delle più giovani' he underlines that she doesn't have a specific hierarchic role in the monastery because she's not a prioress, on the contrary, he adds that she is very young but uses the idiom ' è della costola di Adamo', which implies that since very ancient times the family she belongs to/her family/her dinasty has been a very important one from the social point of view. The point that the boatman is making is underlining that she belongs to aristocracy and that her family is a very important one. Probably this justifies his use of the noun 'signora': ' e i suoi del tempo antico erano gente grande,  venuta di Spagna, dove son quelli che comandano'. The reference to the expression ' ma è della costola di Adamo...venuta di Spagna' provides the boatman the occasion to speak about the nationality of those who have power, because he speaks about great people coming from Spain. 

In I Promessi Sposi Alessandro Manzoni exploited the previous century to criticize the power of the moment.( in realtà sono two centuries before, ndr). ' e i suoi del tempo antico erano gente grande,  venuta di Spagna, dove son quelli che comandano'. Those who have power are Spanish, and he adds ' e per questo la chiamano signora'. The intelligent reader understands that the lexical focus of the introductory opinion about the nun is the word 'signora' because it is very frequently repeated in the introductory paragraph. To what effect is this language used? The purpose is to create a mystery around the nun, and therefore to elicit/stimulate the reader's curiosity, attention and giving him a reason to keep on reading so that he can get deeper into the narration. 

At the same time, all the information provided by the strategy of reputation tells the intelligent reader a lot about the mentality of the period. Accordingly, people coming from aristocracy were considered more important than the ordinary, common people.'Tutto il paese la chiama con quel nome'. It is an additional way to underline her peculiar status inside the monastery because generally speaking the choice of ‘signora’ is not something that we expect to address a nun. 

So, the intelligent reader must expect that there is something peculiar, unusual about this woman. 'Tutto il paese la chiama con quel nome perchè dicono che in quel  monastero non hanno mai avuto una persona simile'. The idea of the nun to be totally different from the common nuns is underlined by the expression 'mai' which is a time expression. Therefore, the introductory idea of the nun is that she is a unique woman, somebody that never ever was found in the monastery before. 

So, what is the reader's position?

The reader is given more and more reasons to find out about the nun, it is as if the narrator by using this strategy, which is an indirect one, makes the reader meet the nun by means of the words of the boatman.  He creates a climatic curiosity, not a simple curiosity, but some curiosity that grows in time and space.

'e i suoi d'adesso, laggiù a Milano, contan molto, e son di quelli che hanno sempre ragione'. Again, the boatman expresses the mentality of the time juxtaposing social class and power.' e in Monza anche di più, perchè suo padre, quantunque non ci stia, è il primo del paese;'. So , the nun's family is considered the most important in the context. 'onde, anche lei può fare alto e basso nel monastero'. So, the boatman's words create a juxtaposition by means of cause and effect.(siccome i suoi erano così, anche lei doveva essere così. Questo non sta scritto da nessuna parte, ma era la mentalità del tempo).

Lucia and her mother are given pre-requisites about the character they have to meet and they are alerted they have to pay attention to the woman, because 'lei può fare alto e basso', she can do whatever she likes because of her social status, even if the common people might expect a nun to be humble and simple and not a woman of power. So, right from the start, the nun is introduced as if she were the opposite of what we expect from a nun.'e anche la gente di fuori le porta un gran rispetto; e quando prende un impegno, le riesce anche di spuntarlo'.' All the additional information let the intelligent reader know that she is a strong personality, she always keeps her word, if she wants to obtain certain objectives she succeeds. In this way the boatman reassures the two ladies when he says ' e perciò.....come sull'altare'.

So, once we've analysed the paragraph, now we have to reorganize the data of our analysis into a synthetic introduction. We have to transform data into information.