Lo Spagnollo Essay

The statement by lo spagnolo has been analyzed by scholars in two dominating thoughts. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Giulio Cesare Castello, and the like have contended that lo spagnolo’s offering had underlying homosexual intentions. On the other hand, scholars such as Fernaldo Di Giammatteo, Lino Micchichè, and Marcia Landy propose that such an act by lo spagnolo is of social compassion, thus expressing this communal philosophy. This double entendre strategy also operates in the actions of the characters and in Visconti’s visual presentation of them. Lo spagnolo’s offer to pay Gino’s train fare accommodates Marxist heterocentricity as an act of solidarity exemplifying lo spagnolo’s declared philosophy that “money has legs and was meant to walk”. However, as Nowell-Smith and other have noted, the incident is essentially a

The scene continues with the two men conversing, in which we begin to learn more about this vague and peculiar character. We learn of lo spagnolo’s time in Spain, where he most certainly was active in the civil war, opposite to the fascists; given what we are to understand from his dialogue. We are further exposed to his continually travelling lifestyle, one in which he offers to Gino. “I am an artist. Today, here; tomorrow, there. Wherever I go, there is work to do.” The character is being represented as a deviation from the normal. A stable job, family and home life are void from lo spagnolo and I would extend the same analysis to Gino. Subsequently, in lo spagnolo, Gino meets another migrant that perhaps share similar convictions. In time we arrive to where lo spagnolo extents the proposition of traveling together: “in two we can do many things.” Consequently, we return to Nowell-Smith analysis “lo spagnolo’s decision to stay with Gino in Ancona instead of continuing on to Trieste as he had intended hints at homosexual