The Cloven Viscount

Calvino’s fantastical premise of a nobleman literally split in half serves as an allegory for the artificial division of human nature into purely good and evil components. The novella argues that moral wholeness requires the integration of both virtuous and wicked impulses and that any attempt to achieve perfect goodness or absolute evil ultimately destroys the very humanity it seeks to perfect.

The literal halving of Medardo demonstrates the catastrophic consequences of moral purification. When the cannonball splits the Viscount, each half becomes a grotesque exaggeration of singular moral impulses. The Bad ’Un embodies cruelty without restraint, hanging innocent people alongside guilty ones and setting fires that kill elderly victims. Yet his evil is presented as lacking complexity, becoming instead a theatrical performance of malice. Meanwhile, the Good ’Un represents virtue stripped of wisdom and proportion, as he hectors people with Hansen’s disease about their supposed moral failings and destroys their community’s fragile happiness. His relentless moralizing proves to be as equally oppressive as the Bad ’Un’s destruction, demonstrating that goodness without understanding can be as damaging as purposeful evil.

The community’s reaction to both halves reveals Calvino’s deeper insight into human nature.