The Leopard

Tancredi, like Fabrizio, is a Prince in the Sicilian nobility. Unlike Fabrizio, however, he does not have a fortune. His father spent the family fortune before he died; with Tancredi’s mother also dead, he is in the ironic position of being a penniless prince. Tancredi’s relative poverty helps to highlight the nature of social class in Sicilian society during this era. Class is separated from material wealth, since Tancredi remains a member of the nobility even when he has no money, while men such as Don Calogero are far wealthier than most nobles but will never be considered truly members of the elite. Tancredi’s past helps to highlight the fixed nature of the Sicilian social order just as it is on the brink of collapse. An order that prioritizes breeding and etiquette lacks the tools, the characters recognize, to cope with a changing world. Tancredi is all too aware of this. He knows that he must marry for money rather than love. He loves Concetta, but he fears that his uncle’s similarly declining fortunes, coupled with the changing nature of Sicilian (and Italian) society, will force him to put his actual feelings aside. Tancredi talks about the aristocracy’s need for new blood from the lower social classes. He advocates social mobility and fights for Italian unification. Yet, in a way, these beliefs are self-serving. He is a penniless orphan whose name and title are his greatest assets. Social mobility benefits Tancredi in a material sense. His political beliefs conveniently align with his need for money.

Tancredi is largely portrayed from the perspective of Fabrizio, the man who has taken Tancredi on as his ward. Fabrizio loves Tancredi even more than his own sons. He castigates his eldest son, Paolo, for daring to criticize Tancredi. In Tancredi, Fabrizio sees a younger version of himself. He respects Tancredi’s sense of humor, his seductive talents, and his bravery. In Tancredi’s courtship of Angelica, for example, Fabrizio has an opportunity to vicariously experience young love all over again. Yet Tancredi cannot be like his uncle. Not only does he lack the fortune, but he was born at a point in history when the Sicilian nobility is on the brink of collapse. Fabrizio is the last of the true Sicilian aristocrats; from a young age, Tancredi has sensed the changing of the political order and has chosen to ally himself to the coming power. Echoing the irony of his status as a penniless prince, he is also an aristocratic revolutionary. He joins the rebels in the hills, whose campfires are glimpsed from the Palermo palaces. He fights alongside Garibaldi for a unified Italy, equipping him with war wounds and war stories that augment his charm at high society functions. Tancredi’s revolutionary fervor is, in effect, self-serving, allowing him to get into the ground floor on the new social order as his old world collapses. As he suggests, for everything to stay the same, everything must change.

Tancredi earns the envy of every male noble when he becomes engaged to Angelica. She is beneath him in the social order, since her father is a mere merchant, yet her marriage offers Tancredi vast wealth. The novel occasionally looks forward to their future. They are very successful, travelling Europe as designated delegates of the newly unified Italy. Yet Tancredi and Angelica are never quite happy. The sensuality of their courtship and the gossip of high society betray a hollowness to their relationship that is never truly filled. Tancredi, as the end of the novel suggests, always loved Concetta instead. She was his equal, in a social sense, and their union might have proved more fruitful than the marriage between Tancredi and Angelica. The hollowness of the marriage speaks to the novel’s general exploration of decay and decline. The two most envied figures in the story, who turn every eye and inspire devotion and jealousy in equal measure, were never truly able to make something for themselves. Their marriage is a disappointment, an arrangement of convenience that reveals the demands placed on young people by society. After Tancredi’s death, Concetta learns of his love for her. By this time, it is too late. Tancredi, people assumed, had everything, all except the one thing he truly wanted.

Despite his great wealth, Don Calogero is not a part of the Sicilian aristocracy. As much as Prince Fabrizio represents Sicily’s past, Don Calogero represents Sicily’s future. Don Calogero is not a member of the traditional elite. He is a merchant, a member of the petit bourgeoisie who has cleverly taken advantage of the social upheaval caused by Garibaldi’s movement to make a fortune for himself. As Fabrizio is warned, Don Calogero will soon be richer than him. This financial might is backed with a canny political mind. Don Calogero is the Mayor of Donnafugata and owns many of the surrounding estates. He controls the land, the politics, and the prices in the area. This political and economic power engenders a sense of entitlement in him: He manipulates the plebiscite to change votes against Italian unification into votes in favor of unification. Don Calogero is the coming force in Sicilian politics, the herald of the new world ushering out the old order, but his corruption and self-interest confirm Fabrizio’s cynicism: The new Sicily will be no more egalitarian than the old one, though there will be new faces at the top of the social order. As Tancredi suggests, for everything to change, everything must also stay the same.

Don Calogero is portrayed from the perspective of Prince Fabrizio. The two men have a difficult relationship, though Don Calogero may never even be aware of this. They come from different social classes, and Fabrizio loathes the bourgeois ascendency that Don Calogero represents. The Mayor of Donnafugata may have more power and wealth than he does, Fabrizio tells himself, but he will never be able to enjoy the same aristocratic status. Don Calogero may be unaware of how routinely he embarrasses himself in front of the old nobles. His poorly fitting clothes, his manners, and his choice of jewelry demonstrate to Fabrizio that money cannot buy class. In fact, Don Calogero’s peasant-like efforts to fit in among the elite are a great comfort to Fabrizio. He hates Don Calogero, but these frequent mistakes allow him to look down on the man. Don Calogero may be rich and powerful, but Fabrizio desperately assures himself that he will never truly join the elite. Whether Don Calogero cares about this is not explored in the book. He gets everything: wealth, power, and access to high society through the marriage of his daughter. His frequent breaches of etiquette mean nothing when he is being recommended for a seat in the new Italian Senate. The Leopard portrays the rapid rise of Don Calogero as a juxtaposition to the slow decline of the Salina family. The rise and the fall are brought together in a marriage, even if the two families are never truly joined together as one.