The Marble Faun

Hilda decides to stay in Rome for the summer, when most tourists and natives have abandoned the city. She anticipates months of “lonely, but unalloyed enjoyment” visiting the museums and painting (239).

However, a guilt-induced depression destroys Hilda’s enjoyment. She longs for someone to whom to tell the “dreadful secret” of the murder. Unknown to her, a young Italian artist paints a portrait of her looking with “earnest horror” at a blood spot on her white robe.

Seeing Hilda’s sadness and loneliness, an old German artist advises her to return to America, but she insists that the Old Masters keep her in Rome. At the same time, her despondency makes her see the emotional emptiness in some Renaissance artists who are highly admired. Hilda feels deep nostalgia for her New England home and also wishes Kenyon were with her to share her secret.

Hilda makes pilgrimages among the churches of Rome, admires their visual splendor, and observes the spiritual consolation that Catholics find in them. She feels that the Virgin Mary is a motherly figure who can console distressed women like her. It is St. Peter’s Basilica that impresses her the most, with its “rich adornment” and “space and loftiness” (255).