Brief but detailed description concerning the character of the various protagonists in the Promessi Sposi, Alessandro Manzoni's main literary work.
Renzo
The figure of Renzo is that of a boy who, orphaned when he was still a child, had to get used to necessarily looking after himself with an honest job able to give him a minimum of security together with his Lucia, the future bride. Very simple person, as he grew up in a restricted environment like his country, he has a good but at the same time impulsive character depending on the situations in which he comes to find that often leads him to sudden anger that always lasts very short. Smart smart also finds some difficulties as soon as he has to face some problems outside his small country. He always grants the benefit of the doubt to his neighbor as he always has a lot of confidence in it, but if he realizes that he is suffering from ingenuity he rebels with great impetuosity. He gets very angry with Don Rodrigo, his rival in love, but thanks to his great balance and through his natural faith in God, in the end he forgives him.
Lucia
A simple girl with noble feelings, she finds herself entangled in the midst of a series of unpredictable intrigues created to harm her and Renzo. Its only effective defense weapons are those of faith combined with prayer and work; the union of these ingredients lead her to always have great inner strength to overcome all adversities, always regaining a balance and inner peace.
Agnes
Woman of a certain age and therefore with discreet experience of worldly things, she has a decisive and hasty character but at the same time impulsive in judgments and this sometimes leads her to make mistakes. Lucia's mother has a great love for her daughter: chatty and spontaneous in all situations she will work with the omnipresent strength of her optimism to help her daughter achieve happiness.
Father Cristoforo
Lucia's spiritual guide is a Capuchin friar at the convent of Pescarenico, a few kilometers away from the country of the betrothed. The figure of the friar is that of a man who, before entering the convent, made his life experiences dedicating himself together with his father to the defense of the weakest victims of abuse by powerful aristocrats. A famous duel, consequent to this attitude, will lead him to discover his religious vocation. It is the symbolic figure of the struggle between good and evil which always supported by an infinite faith will aim to obtain divine justice in helping the needy.
Cardinal Federigo
Archbishop of Milan visits the town of the Unnamed in the days of Pentecost. With exemplary conduct he scrupulously applies the principles of the Catholic religion always animated by great willpower and intelligence. Considered one of the most cultured men of the time, he is at the same time very humble and finds himself having to struggle daily against his own environment to affirm the principles in which he believes, dedicates his existence to charity and study. He is a good and whole man, devoid of any weakness that knows how to communicate with everyone.
Unnamed
The most complex figure in the novel is a truly existent character in which the author pours out the spiritual drama that has its roots in the unexplored depths of the human soul. The Unnamed is an evil man and the powerful to whom Don Rodrigo turns to kidnap Lucia. But the meeting with lucia causes in the Unnamed first a serious spiritual crisis then a light that will lead him to an integral transformation and then to the conversion that will take place when, taken by remorse for having imprisoned Lucia in the castle, he meditates suicide but looking back at some words spoken by Lucia and to God is saved by glimpsing the way of mercy and forgiveness.
Don Rodrigo
This character is a nobleman of the time who falls in love with Lucia and would like to have her for himself at all costs. He only knows the law of the fittest and for this reason he believes he can and must obtain what he wants even with arrogance, counting on the support of influential people, thanks to his high social position, who guarantee him impunity. At the same time, he does not always have the courage of his actions and must find someone worse than him to carry them out, such as the Unnamed to whom he turns to implement the plan of Lucia's kidnapping. But because of the repentance and conversion of the Unnamed, he will be forced to leave and hide, until the plague hits him hard leading him to death in the Milan hospital.
Don Abbondio
This is a fearful man, the priest who should marry Renzo and Lucia but does not find courage as he is threatened by Don Rodrigo. It will only be at the end of the novel that he will agree to celebrate the wedding, when he will have the certainty that Don Rodrigo is now out of the game.
Gertrude
Also called La monaca di Monza, she welcomes Lucia on her escape from her native country to escape Don Rodrigo.She became a nun not by choice but by imposition is in fact an unhappy woman and easily subject to sin, not having the inner strength typical of the religious order of which she joined.
