Diavola

The novel shifts when Anna returns to New York City, the ghost unexpectedly following her there. The first portion of the narrative closely adheres to Gothic conventions regarding setting and atmosphere: An eerie, ancient villa is the kind of place ghosts inhabit in such works. That the ghost story continues to play out in a small, nondescript Manhattan apartment subverts some conventions of the haunted house novel but also reveals the symbolic function of haunting within the novel. The ghost goes home with Anna because it represents her unresolved familial trauma: something she can never truly escape until she confronts her feelings about her family and their dynamic, which continue to impact her adult life. For instance, Anna still seeks contact with her family, even though they have hurt and disappointed her and continue to do so. Indeed, Anna’s life quickly falls apart due to the ghost’s presence in part because she has not gotten what she needed from her family: acknowledgement of the reality of what happened during their vacation. Instead, old patterns begin to resurface as soon as everyone is safely home, with Anna becoming the scapegoat for all the problems with the trip. Thus, Caterina’s stubborn presence alludes to the theme of Imprisonment in Denial and Repression.

The move to the New York City setting also allows for a glimpse into Anna’s job and reveals the horror of contemporary capitalism and urban life. Just as the presence of the ghost reveals fissures within the family, Caterina also forces Anna to reckon with how stifled and trapped she feels by her corporate job, precarious financial state, and cramped apartment, implying that Anna needs to break free from these aspects of her life as much as she needs to break free from her toxic family. In fact, the two are intertwined: Anna might not have lived up to her family’s expectations, but she has commodified her artistic talent, leveraging it to secure a traditional career path at the expense of self-expression. She thus continues to conform to certain social norms that do not reflect her true desires, developing the theme of The Empty Performance of Social Elitism.

The tone of Anna’s interactions with the ghost becomes darkly comic as she tries to shoo it away, suggesting Anna’s evolving approach to tackling problems; Caterina remains a sinister and disruptive presence, but Anna feels a greater sense of agency within her own space. During her time in Italy, Anna was consumed with the desire to get away from the ghost and the villa, but by the time the ghost follows her to New York, Anna is forced to accept that she needs to change herself, not simply change settings. Anna thus changes tactics from escape to confrontation, reflecting her psychological maturation. She researches ghost lore in general and Caterina’s ghost specifically. She also begins to grapple with the burden of the key. Passed from family member to family member, the key (and the haunting that accompanies it) suggests the weight of inherited trauma, which Anna nearly hands off to the next generation when she drops the key on the street. Her intervention to protect the innocent girl thus signals an important symbolic shift—a refusal to perpetuate the dysfunctions of her family.

As Anna finally fills in the details of Caterina’s life, the actions that led to her becoming a sinister presence after her death become clearer, developing the theme of Mistrust of Feminine Agency and Desire. Anna’s experiences have established that an independent and sexually liberated woman is still regarded with suspicion in the 21st century. While the novel frames Caterina as a villainous figure—her pursuit of her sexual appetites and her indulgence of her sexual jealousy are selfish and reckless—the ongoing stigma that Anna faces reminds readers of how frustrated a woman like Caterina must have been in Renaissance Italy. Caterina thus serves as a dark foil to Anna, revealing how distorted women’s agency can become in a society that does not allow its free exercise.