Il tema della conversione in Ivanhoe di Walter Scott e nel Rabbi di Bacherach di Heinrich Heine

Abstract

 The present paper examines the relationship between Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Heinrich Heine’s The Rabbi of Bacharach with regard to the theme of conversion to Christianity. Both historical novels are based on the stories of Jewish people whom Christians try to convert to their faith. I start with the reception of Scott in Restoration Germany. The Scottish author is chosen by Heine as model for his Rabbi and at the same time surpassed. Compared with the model, the attempts of conversion are developed in a very different way in Heine’s Rabbi, although, in both works, such attempts concern the female protagonists, Rebecca of York for Ivanhoe and Sara for The Rabbi. After comparing the two characters, I will try to explain the different conclusions that Scott and Heine reach: if the former considers emigration as the only possible solution to Christian oppression, the latter offers several possibilities of survival, though none of them proves truly satisfying.