In Yannis Ritsos's dramatic monologue 'The Moonlight Sonata' (I Sonata tou Selinofotos), what does the decaying mansion symbolize?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. The fading aristocratic past
- Step 1: The aging 'Woman in Black' addresses a silent young man, wandering through her crumbling ancestral house cluttered with rotting heirlooms. The dilapidated mansion symbolizes the suffocation of the past, emotional isolation, and the dying bourgeois order longing for revitalization. Answer: The fading aristocratic past. Why not the others: "The victorious proletariat" inverts the theme; the house represents the stagnant aristocratic past awaiting demolition; "The industrial modern state" contradicts the atmosphere of stagnant, dusty provincial decay portrayed throughout the poem; "The pastoral rustic paradise" mischaracterizes the urban aristocratic mansion filled with memories and decrepitude.
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