Konformist

The Conformist is one of the most important political-psychological novels by Alberto Moravia, published in 1951. It is inspired by the real-life assassination of the anti-fascist Rossellii (Moravia's own relatives) by fascists in France in 1937. The novel is divided into a prologue (childhood), a main part (adulthood) and an epilogue (post-war period).

The main character Marcello Clerici is a young man from the Roman bourgeoisie who suffers from a deep sense of abnormality. As a child, he experiences violence from his father (who sinks into madness), the coldness of his mother and an attempt at sexual abuse by Lino (a former priest). In a panic, he shoots Lino, believing that he has killed him – an event that marks him with the trauma of "abnormality" and guilt. His whole life he tries to become "normal": he approaches fascism as a system that offers uniformity, marries an ordinary, average Giulia (who symbolizes petty-bourgeois security), works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and builds a facade of the perfect bourgeois.

When the fascist secret service orders him to liquidate former professor Quadri (an anti-fascist in exile) in Paris, Marcello uses his honeymoon with Giulia as a cover. In Paris, he meets Quadri and his young, sensual wife Lina (Anna), with whom he falls in love - but this love is ambivalent, a mixture of attraction and the desire to "normalize" her. The mission culminates in the assassination of Quadri and Lina in the forest near the border – the violence is portrayed as chaotic, unsuccessful and pathetic.

The epilogue takes place in 1944, after the fall of fascism: Marcello, now in fear, meets Lina (who survived) and realizes that his "normality" was an illusion - he was actually a conformist out of fear, and fascism only intensified his inner emptiness and moral breakdown.

Moravia dissects the psychology of fascism here: conformity is not passive obedience, but an active passion for uniformity, an escape from individuality and sexual/existential "abnormality." Marcello is Moravia's typical antihero - alienated, incapable of authenticity, trapped in false roles. The novel criticizes the bourgeoisie and totalitarianism through intimate psychological drama, linking sexual repression with political opportunism.

The work influenced Bertolucci's 1970 film (with Trintignant), which intensified the visual and erotic dimension. The Conformist remains a powerful portrait of how fear of oneself can lead to crime and loss of identity.