The “Ideal Woman” has been observed to change throughout history and culture, and in  Madame de Staël’s Corinne, or Italy, the changing ideal of the first years of the 19th century is documented. The novel follows the intense love affair between the titular character of Corinne, a famous poet living in Rome, and Oswald, a Scottish nobleman who heavily identifies with the customs of England, on his travels to Italy for his health. After learning that Corinne is actually the elder half-sister of Lucile, the young girl that Oswald’s father intended him to marry, Oswald returns to England to clear Corinne’s name of scandal. Corinne follows him to England, sees Oswald interacting with Lucile—who he has already started to become attracted to—and she breaks off their relationship. Throughout the novel, there is significant tension regarding the characteristics of Oswald’s ideal woman, as he constantly compares Corinne to proper Englishwomen but then becomes distant from Lucile after they marry.

 

This tension of what makes an Ideal Woman creates anxiety for both Corinne and Lucile. Towards the end of the novel, Lucile disguises a question of truth and attraction as an artistic opinion: “... she finally dared to go up to [Oswald] and ask him shyly if Domenichino’s Sibyl appealed to him more than Correggio’s Madonna” (Staël 386). The question refers to the paintings, Madonna della Scala by Correggio and one of Domenichino’s paintings of the Cumaen Sibyl, with the two different subjects respectively symbolizing Lucile and Corinne (Raphael 410). The first painting reflects duty and purity while the second is defined by genius and independence. By asking Oswald which painting “appealed to him more,” Lucile reveals her knowledge of his previous relationship with Corinne—but the question is also one of attraction: which woman is his ideal (Staël 386)? By placing these two archetypes of women in tension with one other, Staël reframes what is considered to be an Ideal Woman, challenging the constrictions of Oswald’s ideal Englishwoman and advocating for an ideal womanhood that values individual happiness, producing a sort of hybrid ofCorinne and Lucile.

 

Lucile is described throughout the novel in terms of her similarities to the Virgin Mary or Madonna. Before her character is introduced in the novel, Oswald notes her youth and his father approves of her as the only woman worthy of being married to his son. When Oswald meets her, he is immediately attracted to her innocence and reservedness. Her sheltered nature can specifically be observed in how her “paleness gave way to blushes in a moment” (Staël 306). Lucile is unable to hide her emotion due either to a lack of practice talking to men or to her tanned features, a result of being outside or traveling. This lack of experience with the world and men contribute to her characterization as both a literal and metaphorical virgin. These markers of innocence are enough to suggest her association with the Madonna, but the clearest indication comes at the end of the paragraph, when she is described as having “heavenly purity” (Staël 306). 

 

The comparison between Lucile and the Madonna is made even more explicit later on. When traveling through Italy, the family sees Correggio’s Madonna della Scala, a fresco depicting the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus. Lucile lifts her own child, Juliet, to see the painting better in such a way that mirrors the painting, and Oswald immediately notices the similarity: “Lucile’s face was so like the ideal of modesty and grace painted by Correggio that Oswald turned his gaze alternately from the picture towards Lucile and from Lucile towards the picture” (Staël 384). Lucille resembles the Madonna in her modesty and duty to her child. In comparing Lucile to the Madonna, Staël compares her to the original vision—in the Western world—of the Ideal Woman. She fits the profile of the most important woman in Christianity, making her the most worthy of marriage to Oswald.

 

Lucile’s innocence and duty are also seen in how she expresses her Christianity. Her faith is distinguished by a clear order, something that Oswald also desires in religion. These characteristics are notable in her daily prayer: “After praying for the servants of the house, for relatives, for the King, for the country, came the words, ‘Oh God, vouchsafe us the grace that the daughter of this house may live and die without her soul being stained by a single feeling in discordance with her duty’” (Staël 309). Lucile’s “duty” is not explicitly named in the prayer itself, but from the greater context of the prayer, it can be concluded that her duty lies with her family, England, and God. These lines of duty—and their succession from one to the next—exemplify the kind of woman Oswald was taught to seek out. Years prior, Oswald’s father had described her as having “the most touching modesty in her features… She is the kind of truly English woman who will make my son happy” (Staël 319). For Oswald’s father, duty to country and “touching modesty” are inseparable (Staël 319). Ultimately, this Ideal Woman is what Oswald is supposed to be attracted to: a woman who exemplifies duty and modesty rather than power.

 

Contrastingly, Corinne, whom Oswald loved before Lucile, is described throughout the novel as a Sibyl and shown to have significant power. According to Sylvia Raphael, the translator of the 1998 edition of the novel, Sibyl is a “name applied to a number of prophetic women; the most famous was the Cumaean Sibyl, said to have been consulted by Aeneas before he entered the underworld” (410). The ability of prophecy and the fact of being sought out for help by a man suggests a significant amount of power in a Sibyl’s words. For Corinne, this association gives her not only fame, but also power in Italy. When first introduced in the novel, she is shown on her way to her coronation in Rome for her poetic achievements, where she is described as “dressed like Domenichino’s Sibyl” with an “Indian turban… wound round her head” and a white dress “with a blue stole fastened beneath her breast” (Staël 23). Corinne even makes her home within view of a temple to Sibyl, who is described as a “woman stimulated by divine inspiration” (Staël 149). Corinne’s fashion and literal proximity to Sibyl draws a connection between the two and ultimately elevates Corinne’s poetic genius to that of divine prophecy.

 

The Romans seem to believe this connection may be more literal than metaphorical. They build up a mythical image of Corinne by following her everywhere she goes, waiting to hear her every word, and even describing her as a “goddess surrounded by clouds” (Staël 22, emphasis original). Further, when Corinne asks for a theme for her improvisation at her coronation, the crowd demands a poem about “The glory and happiness of Italy!” (Staël 28, emphasis by the author) This request reveals the trust—and thus power—that the Romans bestow upon Corinne, as they want to be guided by her “divine inspiration” the same way that Aeneas was by his Sibyl (Staël 149).

 

Although he loves Corinne, Oswald is less impressed by her influence over the Romans, and thus it is clear that he has a distaste for her power. Importantly, it is not Corinne’s poetic talents that he deplores—far from it, he is in fact enthusiastically entranced by her talents from the beginning of the novel: “he expressed his admiration by the most rapturous applause, and this time the acclaim of the Italians themselves did not equal his” (Staël 33). Rather, he is bothered by her presence in Italian society due to her talents. Before Corinne performs her own translation of Romeo & Juliet, 

Oswald’s feelings were a mixture of apprehension and pleasure; he was enjoying the performance in advance, but he was also jealous in advance, not of any one particular man, but of the public who would be spectators of the talents of the woman he loved. He would have liked to be the only one to know how witty and charming she was; he would have liked Corinne to be as shy and reserved as an Englishwoman and to reveal her eloquence and genius to him alone. However distinguished a man may be, he never appreciates the superiority of a woman without mixed feelings. (Staël 122)

Not only does Oswald wish that Corinne’s talents were his alone to enjoy—likely opening them up to his control—he wishes that she were more “shy and reserved as an Englishwoman” (Staël 122). Although this scene comes before Lucile is introduced, it is clear after her initial meeting with Oswald that her character mirrors that of the perfect Englishwoman that he describes in this quote. However, Corinne’s experience of living in England as an adolescent makes Oswald’s ideal vision impossible. While there, she was not allowed to pursue her poetic talents and had to take on the role of a homemaker waiting on the men of the family. Fleeing to Italy after her father died was a choice not of duty to another person or a country but one made for her own happiness.

 

This happiness deeply contrasts Lucile’s life with Oswald. Although she fulfills the picture of perfection of the Madonna—duty, innocence, and all—she is still not happy in her marriage and struggles to understand him. She is, after all, the one who asks him the question of whether he prefers the image of the Madonna or the Sibyl. In fact, Oswald never explicitly tells Lucile that he loves her. He only states in a letter to Corinne, “I respect my ties, I love your sister” (Staël 392). It is clear from this statement that Oswald’s love for Lucile is not based in passion or emotion but rather “respect,” which is itself a kind of duty (Staël 392). Further, Lucile spends the first four years of their marriage in turmoil, learning about Oswald’s previous relationship with Corinne and raising their daughter without him while he is away with the military. The knowledge about their relationship makes loving him difficult in many ways: “She was in turn jealous of Corinne and displeased with Oswald for having been so cruel to a woman who loved him so much, and it seemed to her that, for her own happiness, she must fear a man who had thus sacrificed the happiness of another” (Staël 370). In short, how would it be possible for Lucile to be happy in the first place if Oswald may very easily cast aside her happiness? Did Oswald truly love her or did she only fulfill all his desires for an Ideal Woman?

 

Only when Lucile reunites with her half-sister Corinne does she find a way to achieve happiness in her marriage by taking Corinne’s advice on how to manage Oswald’s moods. Corinne advises her that Oswald  “[needs] her spontaneous confidences because his natural reserve [prevents] him from asking for them; he [needs] her to show more interest because he was liable to be discouraged, and he [needs] cheerfulness precisely because he suffered from his own sadness” (Staël 398). This is to say that Lucile needs to reduce her modesty and show some initiative with her feelings towards Oswald in order for him to know that she loves him. Corinne also encourages Lucile to take up the artistic pursuits that she had tried to teach her as a child and to continue to nurture them in her daughter Juliet. In short, Corinne proposes a balance between both of their characters: a dutiful wife and mother and an engaging conversationalist and artist. This coupling of characteristics suggests that in order to find happiness in her marriage, Lucile needs to become an independent actor playing a role in a partnership. Her duty is no longer solely to her husband but also to her own accomplishments and personhood. This plan immediately strengthens their relationship, as “Every day [Oswald’s] curiosity grew stronger as he noticed Lucile’s new charms” (Staël 399). He shows Lucile more attention and is ultimately charmed by her new, more independent character.

 

This Corinne-Lucile hybrid is Staël’s proposed Ideal Woman, as it is a combination of both characters’ best qualities—at least in the eyes of Oswald. This new Ideal Woman severs the dichotomy of duty towards family/country/God and individual happiness, suggesting that both are possible when a woman has the ability to act as an independent person in a partnership with her husband. If Lucile is to be truly happy in her marriage to Oswald, she needs to focus on her individual happiness and accomplishments and not just her devotion to higher powers. Although this logic seems to suggest that Corinne would need to give up some portion of her talents in order to devote time to Oswald or England, she dies in the final pages of the book before such a thing can happen. Her death suggests that there is nothing that she could have done to change herself into an Ideal Woman. Despite this, the fact that Lucile, who is at first depicted the image of a rigidly devout Englishwoman, is able to adapt in order to find true happiness in her marriage, shows that any woman can. In Madame de Staël’s Corinne, or Italy, even the Madonna herself can stretch the boundaries of the role that was given to her to find happiness and love.