A candidate analyses Leopardi's A Silvia. Which interpretation best connects the poem to his "pessimismo"?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Silvia's early death shows how hopes of youth are cut off by nature
- Step 1: The poem recalls Silvia singing at her loom and the speaker's own hopes in youth. Step 2. Both Silvia and the hopes die, and Leopardi blames nature, which promises happiness and then withholds it: this is the heart of his pessimism. Answer: her early death shows hopes cut off by an indifferent nature. Why not the others: marriage, consoling memory and travel are not in the poem, which ends with desolation.
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