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Dissidence 173place full of enchantments, a boundless expanse of grassland, with afountain of living water which gushed with a melancholy gurgling,and beside which sat a girl with abandon.(I:116)Tarchetti’s strategy of amplification effectively reproduces Shelley’sfeminist critique by further exaggerating the patriarchal gender imageswhich shape the characters. When Winzy drinks what he mistakenlyassumes is a remedy for his frustrated love of Bertha, he experiences asudden fit of self-esteem and daring which comically confirms hispsychological weakness, thus continuing the satire of male power:“methought my good looks had wonderfully improved. I hurriedbeyond the precincts of the town, joy in my soul, the beauty of heavenand earth around me” (223). The Italian version turns Vincenzo into aparody of the romantic individual, narcissistic, chest-thumping,Byronic:parvemi che i miei occhi, già così ingenui, avessero acquistata unasorprendente expressione. Mi cacciai fuori del recinto della città collagioia nell’anima, con quella orgogliosa soddisfazione che mi dava ilpensiero di essere presto vendicato.it seemed to me that my eyes, previously so ingenuous, had acquired astriking expression. I dashed beyond the city limit with joy in myheart, with that proud satisfaction which made me think that I would soonbe avenged.(I:122)The translation likewise accentuates the caricature of female vanity.Whereas Winzy observes that his youthfulness drove Bertha to find“compensation for her misfortunes in a variety of little ridiculouscircumstances” (228), Ortensia is said to revert to “puerili e ridicolecircostanze”/“childish and ridiculous circumstances” (I:129). Andwhereas Winzy states that Bertha “would discern wrinkles in my faceand decrepitude in my walk” (228), Vincenzo complains that Ortensia“struggeasi di scoprire delle grinze sul mio viso, e qualche cosa diesitante, di decrepito nel mio incesso”/“was consumed withdiscovering wrinkles in my face, and something hesitant, decrepit inmy gait” (I:130).Tarchetti’s first decisive departure from the ideologicaldeterminations of Shelley’s tale occurs on the issue of class. Shelley