Isabel Allene By Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende writes about Maurizia Rugieri and her struggle for the spotlight and attention. Allende creates a really dislikable character out of Maurizia. From the beginning, Maurizia is portrayed as a spoiled and bratty person. With details like “she spoke with unexpected hauteur” and “she left… dragging the doll by one foot”, the reader can get a sense this young girl is used to having things her way and would grow into being that way into adulthood. Allende portrays her main character as even more of a villain when she introduces Ezio Longo and his passionate love for Maurizia.
Ezio is gains the reader’s sympathy rather quickly. The description of the way he loves his wife is heart-warming. Allende writes “When he gazed at Maurizia his eyes sometimes filled with tears and his chest contracted with a tenderness…”
It is almost as if she became more infatuated with the idea of them rather than him as a person. This whole episode gives her even a harsher image. Ezio attempts to get her back after all that she had began, but she was too tied up with the idea of her affair. This is where her spoiled personality shines through, because she handles the situation like a child. At one point, Ezio says “For our son’s sake, Maurizia, you must get these fantasies out of your head.” Her response was to turn to the wall and pout, which makes the reader infuriated. When Ezio threatens to take away their son, Maurizia doesn’t so much as blink twice before agreeing to that condition. It is in that moment where the reader knows that Maurizia is off in a fantasy world, where obligations and families are below an affair. Granted, if Maurizia was not in love with Ezio, there is nothing she could do about that, however, she could have handled the situation more maturely than she