57 pages • 1-hour read
The Amalfi Curse
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, substance use, sexual content, cursing, illness, and death.
The Intergenerational Struggle for Women’s Independence
The Amalfi Curse’s dual timelines allow Penner to examine the intergenerational struggle for women’s independence, highlighting ways in which women’s experiences compare and differ over the centuries. For example, as a woman living in the present day, Haven has access to educational and professional opportunities that Mari and other 19th-century women lacked. However, misogyny still infringes on her agency, as demonstrated when Gage and Conrad make crucial decisions about her career without including her in the conversation, decisions they expressly connect to her gender, asserting they: “can’t pay to put a group of women in the water, Haven. Should something happen, think how that would look” (87). Through parallels in Mari and Haven’s stories, the author addresses common obstacles to women’s independence as well as forms of resistance and resilience that have empowered women for generations.
In both the past and the present, one of the most formidable threats to women’s freedom is men’s destructive greed. Penner emphasizes this point by making the avaricious Corso’s letter to Matteo the prologue as well as the inciting incident that sets the plot into motion. Corso bargains with Matteo, saying: “For a price, I am willing to reveal what I know—to tell you what I have learned, what I have seen. Who I have seen. I can only imagine the fortune such information would bring you” (12). His desire to reify his wealth by using the lives of the sea witches as currency reinforces his antagonistic role in the story.
Both Corso and Matteo treat women as possessions they can use and manipulate for their own ends. Near the end of the novel, Corso reveals that he concocted his scheme not only because he covets material wealth but also because he thought the Mazzas’ interest in Positano would make Mari more willing to marry him, reducing her to a beautiful object he desires to possess. More than any other character, Matteo embodies the destructive impact of men’s greed on women’s independence. Even though he is already extremely wealthy, his fathomless avarice drives him to seek to capture Mari and the rest of Positano’s sea witches and force them to locate treasure for him just as he did to Imelda 12 years ago.
In the present-day timeline, Penner emphasizes the ways women still must contend with men’s greed in their struggle for independence. For example, Conrad steals away the biggest opportunity of Haven’s career because he wants to seize the sunken gems in Li Galli. His actions are made more insidious by his patronizing excuses that he’s acting in her best interest, implying that men are better qualified to make major life decisions for her than she is herself. As Conrad tells her: “[W]e need to keep you out of harm’s way. Your dad would want that” (133). Whether they are brazen or underhanded about their true motives, the men who threaten the protagonists’ freedoms in both timelines are consistently driven by greed.
In contrast, the novel’s heroines fight for their agency by pursuing what brings them personal fulfillment rather than chasing material wealth. Mari understands that love is “the greatest treasure to be found” (325), rejecting Corso’s proposal and marrying the devoted but financially insecure Holmes. Ultimately, she prevails in her struggle for freedom not only from Corso and the Mazza brothers but also from her fraught life as leader of Positano’s coven. In a parallel to Corso’s proposal, Savina attempts to bribe Haven to marry Enzo with promises of wealth: “I can find the greatest undiscovered riches […] Whatever you want to achieve, personally or professionally, can happen if you will let it” (280). Haven refuses this temptation, freeing her to preserve her authentic relationship with Enzo and to search for the gems her father found in a way that honors her ethos as a nautical archaeologist. For centuries, women have had to fight for their independence, and Penner honors this ongoing struggle through Mari and Haven’s stories of resilience.
The Power of Love and Sacrifice
In the novel’s 19th-century timeline, love and sacrifice are presented as powerful sources of transformation and salvation. Although, as a work of historical fiction, the narrative contains elements of romance, Penner also portrays the strength of family and community ties, making the thematic exploration of love deeper and more encompassing.
Out of all the novel’s characters, Mari’s mother is the most inextricably tied to the idea of loving sacrifice. When the Mazza brothers discover her powers, she gives up her freedom to protect her daughters and Positano’s other sea witches, saying: “I was not about to risk the welfare of my daughters or my friends” (240). Imelda facilitates the novel’s climax and happy ending by freeing Holmes because of their mutual love for Mari and giving her life to cast the vortice centuriaria. The curse lasts for 100 years and destroys the villainous Matteo, making it the novel’s clearest example of the immense power of sacrifice. Imelda’s selflessness saves her daughter’s life as well because Mari intended to cast this very curse to protect the women of her community. In the message she leaves for her daughter, Imelda writes, “I have always loved you. This, I hope, is proof of it” (287), underscoring the novel’s portrayal of self-sacrifice as the most meaningful form of love.
Mari and Holmes’s willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for their loved ones adds to the story’s romance, suspense, and impact. Throughout the novel, Mari places others’ well-being ahead of her own, from agreeing to marry Corso to give Sofia a chance to wed for love to shouldering her responsibilities as the coven’s leader despite her painful relationship with the sea. In one of the story’s most suspenseful scenes, she sinks the Aquila even though Holmes is onboard out of her protective love for and sense of duty to her community. The story reaches its climax when she prepares to give her life to stop Matteo from causing Positano any further harm. Holmes also proves his selflessness when his devotion to Mari moves him to sabotage his ship despite knowing the penalty he faces if caught: “He might have been a good man, as Imelda had just said, but he was a criminal. A dead man, once he was back on land” (242). Holmes’s certainty that he won’t live to see Mari again emphasizes the nobility of his sacrifice.
As a final testament to the strength of Holmes and Mari’s bond, Penner makes the truth of their lives the revelation that teaches Savina that she doesn’t have to use her power destructively, securing the present-day timeline’s happy ending. Penner notes that “They couldn’t have known it, but [their love story] was powerful enough—even now, more than two hundred years later—to save an entire region” (308). The way that Holmes and Mari’s romance resonates with the novel’s modern-day characters testifies to the transformative, saving power of love and sacrifice.
Reckoning With History and Heritage
Through the interconnected lives of Mari and Haven, the author shows how different individuals grapple with the challenging task of reckoning with history and heritage. Each of the two main characters is impacted by grief and inherits a powerful strength from her family. Mari is emotionally scarred by her little sister’s death and her mother’s absence, and these tragedies devastate her relationship with her heritage as a sea witch because she blames her losses on the water. Although Mari’s magical lineage enables her to work wonders and protect her community, she sees her heritage as a heavy burden and longs to escape the leadership role that she inherited from her mother when she was only eight years old. Penner notes that “No one seemed to care that young Mari was so tender and heartbroken or that she now despised the very thing she had such control over (16). By the end of the novel, the revelation that Imelda left Positano to protect her daughter helps Mari begin to reconcile with her family history and heritage. The epilogue emphasizes that she will likely need the rest of her life to untangle her “complicated relationship with the ocean,” positioning this kind of reckoning as an ongoing endeavor (234). Mari’s character arc depicts the journey towards reckoning with history and heritage as a gradual healing process.
Although Haven’s work as a nautical archaeologist is rooted in science, Penner creates a connection between her research skills and Mari’s magic in that both protagonists are trained in their skills by their parents. Like Mari’s supernatural powers, Haven’s archaeological skills are a source of strength that proves pivotal to the novel’s outcome. Her dives and archival research connect the story’s two timelines, and she saves the Amalfi Coast by introducing Savina to Lucille, becoming “the connection—the link—between these two separate lines of streghe” (307). On a personal level, diving into Li Gali’s history brings Haven closure. Having to step away from the treasure hunt and focus on her research about Mari makes her realize that she’s “allowed to do something different than what [her] dad asked of [her]” (297), which helps her let go of the guilt and self-loathing she carries after his death. Haven’s efforts to reckon with history and heritage help her to heal and bring hope and restoration to an entire region. As an archaeological thriller and a work of historical fiction, the novel depicts reckoning with history and heritage as a challenging but necessary source of healing and growth.
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