Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa and Life, Death, and the Desire of Eternity in “Il Gattopardo”
Journal Title: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi - Year 2017, Vol 57, Issue 1
Abstract
In his work, "La Sicilia del Gattopardo" (The Sicily of the Leopard), Massimo Ganci emphasizes that according to Tomasi di Lampedusa the lithified aridity of Sicily is a reflection of human life (ref. Gioia, 2014). The impossibility of changing this barren landscape has parallels with the difficulty of saving human existence from the situation in which it finds itself. Barren and beyond redemption, Sicily as depicted between the lines of "Il Gattopardo" is a projection of the despair of the self-alienated individual. This sensation of emptiness and pain augments the pessimism of Tomasi di Lampedusa even further, pushing him towards a universal skepticism and the belief that every kind of ideal is doomed to destruction. In this regard, the author universalizes in his work, the concepts of eternity and death, and perceives these concepts as the essence of daily life. The similarity of the Sicilian landscapes to the human destiny reaches a cosmic dimension in this respect and gains a symbolic significance. Sicily in the 1860s, which has a static characteristic from a historical perspective, appears in this context as a metaphor of an existential state dominated by the menacing presence of death. As we aimed to reveal in our study, although the weakness of the hero against the face of reality, together with his anxieties concerning approaching death, his desperate attempt to hold on to an aggressive sexuality give the impression of emotions and behaviors that are in touch with life, they actually bear the traces of death. The glorification of death in the face of life and the prominence of the desire to reach eternity through this concept in "Il Gattopardo", recognized as being one of Italy's 100 major works of art, has rendered the book considerable importance in Italian literature.
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Özge PARLAK TEMEL
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