Character Analysis: The Fat Woodcarver

Analysis of ‘The Fat Woodcarver’
The Importance of Community in Relation to Selfhood in Early Modern Italy

Name: Matthew Brown
Student #: 996811357
Course: HIS357Y1
Professor: V. McCarthy
Date Submitted: Oct 9 2014
Selfhood and individuality are two concepts inextricably linked with post-modern ideologies of personal existence however in centuries past this was not always the case. During the Early Modern era, specifically in Italy, ones concept of selfhood was heavily reliant on communal relationships and the ongoing politics of a face-to-face society. Through the analysis of ‘The Fat Woodcarver’ one can see that the character of Monetto’s concept of selfhood is deeply rooted in his communal self – therefore the thoughts
Understanding how Fillippo could have successfully undertaken what seems to be an obvious plan of deception one must first look at the structure of the community as well as the actors deployed through the plot. Early Modern Italy communities were structured heavily around multiple solidarities including the family, patron-client relationships, friends, enemies, compatriots and neighbours1. Fillippo, being a wise man2 and a friend to Monetto, understood the inner workings of the communal functions, making him capable of manipulation and thus was able to insert actors at varying stages of the plot causing Monetto, whose selfhood is based wholly on the collective thought of the community, to mentally unravel. There are several actors implicit in the plot and of most importance is their varying positions in the social hierarchy. The most important of these actors are ‘The Boy’, Donatello – the famous sculpture Artisan, the Creditor and Bailiff, The Chief Clerk and Giovanni di
This tale demonstrates the fluidity, connectedness, and influence that the Early Modern community in Italy displayed in regards to conceptions of selfhood and how or why they were developed. Of most importance is the Communal Self, an idea put forth by John Jeffries Martin9, that serves as the basis for the manipulation and devious plot hatched by Fillippo. Through a post-modernist lens one can see that the conception of selfhood in this time was extremely fragile and vastly different than that of the twenty-first century. Individuality was more influenced by social interactions and groupings and was rarely exhibited outside of Religious sacraments and autonomy, a strong concept linked to selfhood, was regulated by communal ideas of the way things should be professed in prescriptive literature10. Overall, communal networks and the power and influence associated with them in Early Modern Italy prove to be fundamental in the formation of selfhood at this time. Through the Fat Woodcarver one can see how an individual’s selfhood can easily be compromised if the necessary social workings are manipulated, as Cohen and Cohen state, “Renaissance individualism, such as it was, was trammeled in collective