Cabiria as a Round Character

In the film Nights of Cabiria, it may seem difficult to determine if the main character, Cabiria, is round or flat being that she ends in the same position in which she started- on an edge of a cliff, in a state of despair, with money stolen from her. In my opinion, she is a round character because of the changes that occurred in between the beginning and ending events of the plot. We are first introduced to Cabiria as a love-stricken, naïve woman. She could not believe that her "lover" would kill her for the little money she had . It did not take long for the source of the money to be revealed- she is a prostitute. Because of this fact, Cabiria is portrayed as a sinner-far from sacred. As the plot develops, we can infer that Cabiria  desires to live a more lavish life and she confides in men to make this happen. She goes from one "established" man to the next hoping to find love.

A turning point arises when the group of prostitutes and their pimps talk of going to see the Madonna. Cabiria is originally against it. She does not understand the point in going until her friend Wanda shares what she would ask. It is not revealed to us specifically what Wanda intended on asking the Madonna, but it is clear that is was powerful enough to make Cabiria reconsider going on the pilgrimage. It is here that we see one point of change in Cabiria. She entered the threshold Eliade spoke of that separated her from being profane to religious; she made a passage from the profane to sacred world.  She falls down to her knees towards the Madonna, repents, and confesses that she no longer wants to live the filthy life she is currently living. She wants grace and a way out. Soon after, we see that she gets frustrated (yells at the nuns) because she sees no change in anyone in the group that went to ask for healing, including the crippled pimp. This causes her to doubt the power of the Madonna, of God. She does not believe. A little time later she encounters Oscar. Because of her past experiences, she doubts that Oscar is a genuine guy. It takes a conversation with Brother Giovanni to bring everything that was occurring in her life into perspective. He told her that she should be in God's grace, because people that are in God's grace are happy. He also let her know that she should get married and have children because matrimony is sacred. This marks another point of change in Cabiria. She stopped responding to the men that wanted her "services" and ultimately agrees to marry Oscar. She even went to the monastery to visit Brother Giovanni so she could tell him the good news. We can assume that Cabiria is now a believer and is in God's grace.

When Oscar revealed that he too was a crook and only wanted her money, Cabiria was not naïve as she was the first time around.  We can tell because she simply gave Oscar her purse and begged him to throw her over the cliff because she was tired of living the way that she was. Something interesting happened though after she calmed down and started walking back to her destination. She walked amongst a group of singing, dancing, lively people. This is odd because of the terrible thing that just happened to her for the second time. I believe that their joyfulness and the smile that it put on her face represents the happiness she was supposed to gain from being in God's grace. We met her as a prostitute confiding in men. Even though she ended up in the same type of situation in the end, I believe she no longer confides in men but in God.