56 pages • 1-hour read
The Instrumentalist
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of child death and sexual abuse.
Anna Maria della Pietà
Anna Maria is the novel’s protagonist. She is a complex, round character who evolves as the narrative progresses. She is initially characterized by the fraught circumstances surrounding her birth and her status as one of Venice’s many unwanted children. Growing up in an orphanage without parents causes her emotional pain as she ages, and the beginning scenes of the novel set the stage for the longing she will later feel to have a family and her speculation about what it might have been like to have Vivaldi as a father.
Anna Maria is a gifted musician whose talent emerges early in her childhood. She experiences synesthesia, which allows her to see colors as she plays music. That ability lets her play with greater passion and intensity than many of her fellow students. Her synesthesia is a “gift” from her mother, who also has the condition and leaves her daughter with the parting wish that she accomplish great things in her life. Anna Maria does achieve everything that her mother wished for her, and music becomes her greatest passion.
Anna Maria, however, is also characterized by her ambition and her willingness to prioritize music over relationships. She feels from an early age that she is “destined for greatness” (12), and she becomes Vivaldi’s protégé not only because she is a violin prodigy, but also because he sees his own ambition and drive reflected in her. Anna Maria’s ambition becomes part of the novel’s thematic focus on the tension between ambition and friendship, as she often chooses her art over her friends. Her choice to dedicate herself to the violin rather than her friendships causes her to miss Agata’s death and on more than one occasion fractures her relationship with Paulina.
Anna Maria’s character arc features significant personal growth. Since Vivaldi exploits her for her composing ability and she comes to resent the fact that she is never credited for her contributions to his work, she begins to doubt his entire values system. She realizes that ambition should only be part of a musician’s approach to life and that human relationships are actually important. She rejects Vivaldi and embraces her friends and the other musicians in the figlie di coro because she wants recognition for her own hard work and talent, but also to collaborate with the other girls and ensure their hard work is also recognized. While she begins the novel as a cold, unfeeling character whose sole passion is music, she ultimately becomes warm and compassionate as she realizes that passions are best when shared with other, like-minded friends.
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi is the novel’s other central character. Although not a traditional antagonist, he is a complex character who provides Anna Maria with key opportunities but is also capable of cruelty and exploitation. Vivaldi has a reputation for difficulty and an intractable personality. He is not well- liked among the composers of his day or at the Pietà. Before she even meets him, Anna Maria is aware of his arrogance. He does demonstrate the full complexity of his personality in their initial interactions, but Anna Maria is so entranced by his genius that she overlooks his character flaws. Still, they have moments of conflict. Although she is only eight, he has outbursts during their lessons and frequently reminds her that he is her superior. During one fraught exchange he yells: “Do you think you can outwit me?” (33), causing Anna Maria to worry that she has lost the respect of a man whom she greatly admires and hopes can help elevate her playing.
Vivaldi bonds with Anna Maria in part because of her musical ability, but also because he realizes that the two are kindred spirits. He also had a fraught childhood and still recalls bitterly his parents’ lack of love and support. Those experiences caused him to prioritize music over human relationships, and he urges Anna Maria to do the same. Vivaldi is very ambitious, and sees a similar sense of ambition in Anna Maria. He influences her beliefs and values to such a great degree that she forsakes friendships to practice the violin. It is not until late in the novel that Anna Maria breaks free from Vivaldi and opens herself up to friendship and love.
Vivaldi’s relationship with Anna Maria becomes even more fraught when he recognizes her burgeoning talent as a composer. Although he mentors her in order to help her improve her craft, he does so in large part to help his own career: Anna Maria contributes to his compositions but does not receive credit for her work. He is thus willing to use Anna Maria’s work without crediting her and has no issue with the fact that some of the best portions of his pieces are not his own. This reflects the sexism of his broader worldview: He believes that women are inferior to men and do not deserve a place within the world of composing.
Paulina
Paulina is one of Anna Maria’s close trio of friends in the orphanage. Dubbed “Little Paulina Rabbit” for her “delicate” frame, she is small of stature and quiet (24). Like Anna Maria, she shows early signs of musical ability and becomes an accomplished oboist.
Paulina loves music and devotes herself to her instrument, but she values friendship as highly as she does talent. She is more attuned to Agata’s health issues, and knows before Anna Maria does that Agata is near death. Although Paulina has a kind, calm demeanor, she is not initially forgiving: When Anna Maria fails to come to Agata’s deathbed, Paulina renounces her and ends their friendship. Paulina does change and grow as she ages, however. By the time she is old enough to join the figlie di coro, she forgives Anna Maria and the two resume their friendship.
Paulina’s narrative arc is also emblematic of the novel’s interrogation of the gender politics of its day. She becomes pregnant out of wedlock, which is the “worst sin” that any of the Pietà girls, themselves the children of unmarried mothers, can commit. Since Paulina has chosen to prioritize friendship, she initially has assistance, as Chiara and Anna Maria help her to conceal her condition.
Although Anna Maria betrays her once again and the two never fully repair their bond, Paulina also becomes illustrative of the novel’s interest in the power of female friendship. Elizabetta Marcini helps Anna Maria to organize a concert in which Paulina will be allowed to play, and Elizabetta then helps Paulina leave the Pietà, hopefully for a position as a governess. In the end, Anna Maria, Chiara, Paulina, and the women surrounding them are able to assert themselves and help one another.
Agata
Along with Paulina, Agata is one of Anna Maria’s close trio of friends at the Pietà. Anna Maria thinks of Paulina and Agata as sisters, and the girls form a close bond early in youth. The girls provide one another with the love and emotional support that, as orphans, they do not receive from their families and that is also lacking in the nuns’ treatment of them. Agata has a calm, even temperament, and she is characterized in large part through her kindness. Her personality contrasts with Anna Maria’s fiery one, but the girls do not clash in spite of their differences. Agata is skilled on the pianoforte. Like Anna Maria and Paulina, Agata is a gifted musician and is dedicated to her craft.
Agata is not a robust, healthy child and struggles through a serious of serious illnesses. On what becomes the night of her death, Paulina finds Anna Maria, who is practicing, and urges her to go to their friend’s sickbed. Anna Maria hesitates, not wanting to give up valuable practice time, and Paulina berates her, asserting: “Some things are more important than music” (74). Agata’s death becomes a central aspect of the novel’s engagement with the tension between Anna Maria’s ambition and her desire for human connection. The guilt Anna Maria feels over having missed her friend’s death will haunt her for the entire duration of the novel. Anna Maria’s action during these fraught moments also, albeit temporarily, fractures her friendship with Paulina. At this point in the novel, Anna Maria has chosen her musical career over her friendship, and she will have to suffer the costs of that decision.
Like all of the Pietà girls, Agata is an orphan. Unlike Anna Maria and many others, however, Agata remains sure that her mother will return for her one day. In this way, she embodies a spirit of hopefulness that many of her friends lack. Her mother does return, although not until after Agata has died. Due to Agata’s unwavering hope in her mother’s love, she is associated with innocence and faith in a way that Anna Maria, Paulina, and many of the other girls are not.
Chiara
Chiara is one of the musicians in the figlie di coro. She is older than Anna Maria and is one of the orchestra’s star players when Anna Maria joins. Chiara is a polished, physically attractive girl who is confident in her talent and in her position within the figlie di coro. Anna Maria instantly perceives her as an adversary. Observing Chiara playing a piece beautifully, Anna Maria observes, “jealousy is a living, breathing thing” (56). She becomes fixated on the possibility that Chiara will always outshine her and vows to become a better player.
Anna Maria’s adversarial relationship with the girls in the orchestra, and Chiara in particular, leaves her ignorant of Chiara’s true nature. Chiara is a kind, empathetic girl who values friendship as highly as she values music. Although she is dedicated to her craft, Chiara makes room in her life for more than her role in the orchestra. Anna Maria does not realize this until she and Chiara are adolescents and Chiara befriends Paulina. Chiara openly has to declare to Anna Maria, “I am not your enemy” (182) before Anna Maria begins to trust her.
Chiara is also forgiving. She is willing to forgive Anna Maria for abandoning Paulina during her labor and even works alongside Anna Maria to put together a composition featuring work by several members of the orchestra. In this way, she helps Anna Maria to learn that friendship is as important as ambition and that collaboration can produce music that is more complex and beautiful than the work of one musician alone.
At the end of the novel, she, Anna Maria, and the other girls who work together on the composition make a powerful statement about the importance of recognition: They will not let their creative genius be erased by that of Vivaldi, nor will they allow him to destroy their friendships with one another.
Elisabetta Marcini
Elizabetta Marcini is one of the Pietà’s wealthy donors. Initially she is characterized by her wealth and coldness. As she is one of the Pietà’s most important donors, the girls are taught to treat her with deference. Anna Maria makes the mistake of being too eager for Elizabetta’s praise, and Elizabetta rebuffs her. Anna Maria develops a disliking for Elizabetta that then lasts through much of the novel. Elizabetta makes periodic appearances, but she does not play a large role in the narrative until Anna Maria, horrified by Vivaldi’s assertion that her mother tried to drown her, flees the Pietà. Then, Elizabetta reveals her true character. She notes, “I help the girls who need it” (311) in a conversation with Anna Maria, and as the two talk, Anna Maria learns her backstory.
Elizabetta is a survivor of incestuous sexual abuse and once gave birth to a baby girl she was forced to give up. She becomes at this point another key piece of the novel’s engagement with 18th-century gender politics: Like the other female characters in the story, she has less agency than the men in her life and very little control over her fate. Elizabetta is kind to orphans, but also women on the margins of society like the young sex worker who is revealed as Anna Maria’s mother. Elizabetta becomes part of the group of women who help Anna Maria to break free from Vivaldi’s influence, reinforcing the importance of female friendship.
Sister Clara and Sister Madalena
Sisters Clara and Madalena are static characters who receive little characterization but remain an important aspect of the novel’s engagement with the politics of gender and religious norms. Sister Madalena is larger in stature and less kind than Sister Clara. Sister Clara is less imposing initially than Sister Madalena and “kinder than she looks” (36). The sisters are tasked with taking care of the Pietà’s many orphans and overseeing their religious and musical educations. They set schedules, enforce rules, and make sure that the girls represent the Pietà well. In this way, they are figures of discipline and order.
As the girls age, however, the sisters’ roles expand: When the girls begin to menstruate (a process over which the nuns keep close watch) they determine which of the girls will work in traditionally feminized fields like laundry and lace-work and which will be married off. Anna Maria likens this process to “selling” the prettiest of the orphans to the highest bidder, and she lives in terror of being deemed not talented enough to remain in the figlie di coro.
Additionally, they further scrutinize the girls’ behavior to ensure that no one commits the unpardonable sin of engaging in extramarital sexual activity. The sisters remind the girls that they are all themselves products of “sin” and caution them against repeating the mistakes of their mothers. In this way, the nuns come to embody the repressive sexual politics of 18th- century Venice. Sister Madalena is never more full of righteous fury than when she discovers Paulina delivering her baby, and Paulina would have suffered a terrible fate if not for the intervention of Elizabetta Marcini.
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