Diavola

A cornicello is a traditional Italian amulet (sometimes worn as jewelry) intended to protect the wearer from evil omens. Its shape resembles a horn or sometimes a chili pepper (especially when fashioned out of a red stone). In Diavola, the cornicello is a symbol related to Mistrust of Feminine Agency and Desire; it represents Anna’s willingness to accept ancient wisdom, feminine intuition, and her inner knowledge.

Anna’s evolving relationship to the amulet illustrates this point. When Anna is visiting Florence, some elderly Italian women offer her one, but she refuses to take it. The women can sense that she needs the protection of the charm, but Anna is unsure of whether to trust her instincts about the ghostly presence in the villa; she is still focused on listening to others rather than to herself and thus rejects the token. Likewise, she keeps trying to maintain a relationship with her family because she thinks this is something she ought to do.

However, at the end of the novel, when she is living in Italy, Anna wears a cornicello “not because she’s afraid, but because she likes the way it taps the place between her breasts as she walks” (290).