48 pages • 1 hour read
Giorgio BassaniThe Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Taste Versus Class
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to sexual violence, antisemitism, genocide, and suicide.
As the narrator struggles to define his identity in a changing political and social landscape, he confronts long-standing barriers between classes. Despite his education and intelligence, he longs for the wealth and prestige of the Finzi-Contini family. As he oscillates between insecurity and entitlement, the novel draws distinctions between the social power granted to those with taste and those with class. The economic position of the Finzi-Continis as well as the status gained from the narrator’s education prompts a look at the differences between taste and class. Bassani ultimately suggests that taste should garner more respect than class since it must be nurtured and refined, yet class affords more social power which those with taste do not always have.
When the Jewish characters encounter the political oppression growing within Italy, the narrator’s first impulse is to ridicule the intelligence of its agents. Cariani interrupts the tennis finals at Eleonora d’Este, and despite the power he has to cancel the event, he is dismissed as nothing more than a “dimwit” who has “never overlooked an opportunity, in public or in private, to lick the feet of the provincial secretary” (54). Cariani has class but no taste and therefore is disrespected by more marginalized characters.
While the narrator pays special attention to the wealth and objects of the Finzi-Contini, he fights against any comparison to Perotti, the family’s servant and closest advocate. While Perotti also cares about the estate and the family, the narrator pushes him away. The narrator does this on purpose, thinking to himself, “I didn’t encourage him, naturally, firmly rejecting his repeated invitations to a servant’s complicity, which not only revolted, but also offended me” (119). The narrator rejects Perotti because of their different backgrounds and does not want to think of Perotti seeing him as an equal. Perotti’s similar interest in the objects that the narrator loves reminds him that his taste does not equate to class and the social power that it affords.
This impulse to hold onto any entitlement and status that he can is a behavior he learned from his family. The detailed explanations of the staff and the economic decline of his family make his attempts to cling to class even more desperate. While the family is cutting back financially, the father takes every opportunity to insult the Finzi-Continis’ taste. The tomb at the center of the novel is always called “an ugly tomb” and characters take this opportunity to feel a smug superiority, calling out this “sin (against taste, especially) of which Moise Finzi-Contini could be accused” (14). Nevertheless, While the narrator’s father and other characters use taste as a means of consoling themselves, they understand that it is no substitute for the greater power that the Finzi-Contini family wields. The narrator describes the tomb as “still imposing, signifying, if only for this reason, the family’s importance” (7). While class is not enough to protect the Finzi-Contini family it still offers something that the narrator cannot access. These distinctions between taste and class show the limitations of both. This economic and social separation between the characters fuels the narrator’s conflicting feelings of superiority and insecurity.
The Appearance of Propriety
As characters’ inner struggles reveal themselves publicly, the choice to prioritize appearances over constructive honesty only delays the inevitable. The appearance of propriety in the novel does not provide rewards but only leads to suffering.
By choosing to repress certain emotions, the narrator is unable to contain himself fully. This comes out most clearly when he becomes physically aggressive with Micòl. He only takes these liberties when he feels that they are in private. In contrast, Micòl exhibits an extreme form of poise. After he accosts her when she is ill, she very calmly gets him to leave the room. Once he is gone, she pours him tea and makes a phone call. He remarks, “I went in as she was hanging up, and again, not without surprise, I saw she bore me no grudge” (147). Micòl values a high level of propriety and despite how direct she can be, she keeps an emotional wall up between herself and all others. Whether it is dealing with the narrator or her brother’s illness, there are always more important daily activities with which to distract herself to keep up appearances. As Bassani emphasizes this trait, he suggests that dedication to appearances undermines the emotional well-being of the characters.
Despite long descriptions detailing every interaction he has with Micòl, the novel glosses over the narrator's sexual encounter at the brothel. The narrator summarizes efficiently by only saying, “[e]verything went very quickly” (181). Neither the narrator nor the text lingers on these moments, like they do his overtly romanticized obsession with the wealthy Micòl. The narrator has an illogical belief that if he can follow Micòl’s instructions then he will be rewarded somehow. While he attempts to keep up appearances and gloss over anything that does not fit in with that scheme, he becomes more miserable and obsessed.
This behavior in the young characters is reflected in their families. On the rare occasion where the narrator speaks with anger, he is focused on the unfairness of his family’s turn of fate. He focuses on his father and how he did everything right in the eyes of the fascist party and is now being punished for it. His family’s “banal[ity] in our normality” only highlights the unfairness in what the narrator calls the “most odious [form]” of antisemitism. Their dedication to appearances in the eyes of the fascists was supposed to protect them, yet it does not. This suggests that keeping up appearances is futile. Under the surface, the struggles of these characters reflect the uncertainty and passions of the world around them. By repressing these behaviors and never acknowledging the real truth, they are unable to confront their problems. Because they learned to copy their parents and their peers, this kind of avoidance continues. Trying to maintain the appearance of propriety hides the real dangers these characters are in.
Protection Against Rejection
As a novel that is centered around invisible internal struggles, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis explores how people avoid the thing that they know will hurt them. Vast external crises loom over the small city of Ferrara. Whether they are facing the changing political landscape, rising prejudice, or economic struggles, the narrator and his companions choose to isolate themselves on the estate instead. As the world becomes more uncontrollable, the characters develop an impulse to protect against rejection by becoming self-deprecating, self-isolating, mocking, and avoidant.
When the Racial Laws pass, the Italian Jews are pushed away from their neighbors, but the narrator stays focused on domestic issues. His denial carefully protects him from the reality of the situation. When the letter expelling him from the tennis club finally reaches him, he mocks the spelling. However, he does pause to notice that “[laughing] at it, was a little more difficult this time, than before” (48). During this difficult time, tennis serves as a convenient excuse to visit Micòl. Her invitation succeeds “without any reference to Marchese Barbacinti’s letter” (50). The tennis group fails accordingly to discuss real matters in a serious way. Because of this, the narrator loses touch with many of them once the weather changes and they don’t return in the spring. Any attempt at camaraderie causes the narrator to detach as he protects himself against the rejection occurring outside the group.
When Micòl explains why her family returns to the local synagogue, she becomes serious and says, “[y]ou know how it is […]. Now we’re all in the same boat. With the situation we’re in, I also feel it would be rather ridiculous to go on making so many distinctions” (76). However, the narrator does not describe his response. Rather than the experience of oppression bringing them closer, the distinctions between the families' different Jewish identities become stronger. The narrator refuses to attend temple, and his father maintains his mocking attitude toward the Finzi-Contini family. These moments when characters could be brought closer together only provide the opportunity for the narrator or other characters to retreat.
The evening that the narrator spends with Malnate discussing both the late Dr. Fadigati and visiting the brothel opens the narrator up to intimate questions that he can’t answer. When his father questions him that night, he struggles to find the words to describe the narrator. After the father explains how wrong Micòl is for him, he recommends, “don’t go there any more. It would be more manly, for one thing” (191). When the narrator follows this advice, he can completely cut Micòl, Alberto, and Malnate out of his life. His detachment protects him against rejection, yet Bassani suggests that no good comes of this.
The emotional distance within the families only fills the protagonist with regret later in life. The illness that no one can bring themselves to mention eventually kills Alberto. The narrator’s paranoia about Micòl and Malnate can never be resolved. Returning to the home and garden of the Finzi-Contini family, the narrator must reckon with these ghosts and his inability to integrate fully into their lives. The ease with which he distances himself from his closest friends and companions feeds his insecurities. After being socially isolated and rejected, this fear of abandonment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
