The Marble Faun

Hilda meets Kenyon at the Pincian Hill. They notice Miriam standing in a piazza below and apparently kneeling to the model. Kenyon imagines that Miriam is somehow in thrall to the mysterious figure because of some sin she has committed.

Miriam pays a visit to Kenyon in his studio, where he shows her some of his sculptures, including one depicting Hilda’s hand. Miriam wishes Kenyon success in winning Hilda’s love, but Kenyon expresses doubt that he will ever overcome her reserve.

When Kenyon shows Miriam his sculpture of Cleopatra, they contrast Cleopatra’s passionate nature to Hilda’s quiet and ethereal personality. Miriam then asks Kenyon if he believes that she, like Hilda, is without serious sin. She suddenly confesses that there is “a secret in my heart that burns me” (94). Kenyon asks her to tell him the secret, but she declines, saying that if she does so then Kenyon will hate her. She asks Kenyon to forget all about this episode. As Miriam leaves, she thinks that she has lost Kenyon’s friendship. She finds the model waiting for her in the street.

The following evening there is a gathering of artists at a local palazzo. Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, and Donatello are there. The friends find a portfolio of old drawings, including one that they believe to be a study for a work by the famous Renaissance artist Guido Reni; it depicts St. Michael defeating Satan. Donatello is startled to realize that the face of the demon resembles Miriam’s model. Miriam denies the resemblance. The friends agree to visit the church housing Guido’s original the next morning to judge the matter for themselves. They leave the palazzo to take a moonlight walk.

Miriam walks with Donatello but warns him that she is not in a merry mood. When the company reaches the Fountain of Trevi, Miriam leans over the water and notices the reflection of a strange figure. It is the model. Filled with “animal rage,” Donatello asks Miriam’s permission to drown him, but Miriam replies that the man is mentally ill and they should leave him alone.

As they continue their walk, Donatello tells Miriam that a change has come upon him and that “the joy is gone out of [his] life” (109). Miriam advises him to leave Rome for his home in Tuscany for the sake of his health. The company passes by several Roman ruins and comments on the evanescence of human life. Then they reach the Coliseum.

At the Coliseum, the model again appears, this time as a pilgrim praying at the shrines placed around the building. Miriam confronts him with great passion. Donatello wants to intervene, but Miriam warns him to leave her for the sake of his own happiness and safety: “[T]here is a great evil hanging over me” (115). Donatello vows, “I will never quit you” (116). The party moves on to the Roman Forum.

The friends reflect on the blood and gore that marked the activities of the Coliseum in ancient times. They ascend the summit of the Capitoline Hill, where they stand on a precipice from which the Roman state hurled traitors to their deaths. At midnight, the friends decide to go home. Miriam remains on the precipice with Donatello, imagining what it would be like to fall over it and have one’s troubles resolved in death.

The model steps forth from a niche in the palace and confronts Miriam. Through a courtyard door Hilda, who has returned to find Miriam, hears a violent struggle and a cry.

Miriam and Donatello look down the precipice and see the inert form of the model lying below. Miriam is horrified at what has happened, but Donatello says that he “did what ought to be done to a traitor” and that he acted on Miriam’s encouraging look (126). Donatello offers to kill himself if Miriam did not want the model to die, but Miriam confirms that “[her] heart consented to what [Donatello] did” (127). Miriam and Donatello embrace and feel united in the deed: “One wretched and worthless life has been sacrificed to cement two other lives for evermore” (128).

Donatello feels guilty, but Miriam tells him to “cast it all behind [him]” (129). Walking back through the city, they feel at one with the murderers of Rome’s past and with all of human evil. Passing by Hilda’s tower, they see her praying; Miriam shouts up to her to pray for her and Donatello.