Changing the plot, #3

Agnes vs. Resa

In my previous post, I said that Matilda was the only interesting character in The Monk. That's not really true; I wasn't giving Agnes enough credit. Agnes is a pretty good character, especially for a novel written by a man in the eighteenth century. She's just much more conventional than Matilda.

Early in the plot of the novel, Ambrosio finds Agnes communicating with her lover. I think they agreed to meet somewhere or something like that. I don't remember, and it doesn't really matter to me right now. The problem is that Agnes is a nun, so having a boyfriend is a huge problem for her.

I really can't remember the details of the backstory here, but basically what happened is that Agnes's boyfriend/fiance/whatever seemed to have died or left her in some irreversible way. So she decided to "take the veil" (become a nun). But then it turns out he's still alive, or around, or whatever, and she's screwed because she's already taken her vows -- and she's pregnant with his child. So she and Raymond plan to elope.

Ambrosio catches them somehow and tells the head of Agnes's convent about what he's seen. The head of the convent takes Agnes away, and -- this is the creepy part -- Agnes just disappears. As it turns out, she's locked in a dungeon underneath the convent, and she stays there for months. She even gives birth to her child while she's hidden there, but since she's given no medical care and very little food, the baby doesn't survive. When her brother finally comes to rescue her, she's still holding her child's dead body.

Agnes is obviously more of a fighter than one would expect to see during this time period. It's true that the only thing she fights for is love and babies, but still -- that's something. She endures a seriously horrible punishment and comes out okay in the end. And I'm pretty she gets to marry Raymond legally. I think they get permission from the Pope or something like that -- some kind of document releasing her from her vows.

I definitely want to retain this kind of determination in Resa, my version of Agnes. It's more the circumstances around her that will have to change. For one thing, my novel is probably going to take place on a two- or three-month-long trip (about the length of summer vacation), and I want the story to end at the end of the trip. So she probably won't be able to deliver her baby, since I imagine her being about two months pregnant at the beginning of the trip.

I think she will just be hidden away, although I'm not sure where to put her yet. I am probably setting this thing in an old abbey or convent, but I'm not sure there will be a convenient dungeon for her to be trapped in. Maybe one of the monk's/nun's old cells.

I'm not sure what to do about the dead baby though. That was just so gruesome in the original story, and I don't want mine to wimp out in comparison. I'm thinking about having her get sick and miscarry due to her imprisonment. That's not quite the same level of ickiness, but I don't know. It's really a problem for the purposes of this story, unless I make their trip much longer, which I really don't want to do.

I think what might happen is that she won't end up happily in the arms of Raymond (Jacob, I think?), maybe because she was only going to marry him because of the baby, or maybe because he was only going to marry her because of the baby. I'm not sure.

Well, I'm having trouble deciding anything definite right now, so this is something I will leave open for while I'm writing the novel. Maybe my character sketches will illuminate the matter, but I'm kind of okay with it if that doesn't happen. These details aren't as crucial to the entire novel holding together. On the contrary, they will reflect the overall feel and theme of the novel, and I like the idea of leaving that partially open. Who knows, maybe Resa will dump Jacob and go off to join a kibbutz. We'll just have to see.