An Atypical Heroine in a Masterpiece: Manon from "Manon Lescaut" by Puccini
An Atypical Heroine in a Masterpiece: Manon from "Manon Lescaut" by Puccini

Summary/Abstract: Even if Manon Lescaut was made towards the middle of the last decade of thenineteenth century and even if the literary "model" belongs to Prévost who created it morethan a century ago (1731), Manon is the image of the woman who finds her place in thereality of any historical moment; not by her story, but by everything that defines her as awoman, both emotionally and morally. Manon is Puccini's first heroine not placed at oneextreme or another; she is neither the positive model nor the negative one, she is just agenuine "heroine", genuine in all that is admirable and everything that is doomed in awoman by society, whatever the society. At a careful analysis of the plot, we can not fail tonotice that her road to perdition is determined by the unfortunate choices she makes thatstem from her inability to renounce one of two things she can not have atthe same time: love and wealth.

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