# Signora Teresa — Nostromo character guide

> Signora Teresa in Nostromo by Joseph Conrad.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Teresa, Señora Teresa, Poor Teresa

**First appearance:** 0003-nostromo

## Snapshot

Giorgio Viola's ailing, sharp-tongued wife, who scolds her Garibaldino husband in the sun and hides a mortal pain behind her handsome, black-browed face.

## Who they are

Teresa keeps the Viola household at the Sulaco inn, issuing from doorways to rebuke Giorgio for his politics and his health while the engineers eat his cooking under Garibaldi's lithograph. She suppresses the twinge in her side with a twitch of her fine lips, having followed her husband from Italy to Maldonado to this flat, dusty coast for the love of liberty. Her dying anxieties — about her daughters, about Nostromo's dangerous glamour — seed the fears that will shape the Viola family's fate.

## Relationships

### [Nostromo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/characters/nostromo)

_family_

Signora Teresa is a maternal figure to Nostromo, often scolding him but caring deeply for his well-being.

### [Nostromo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/characters/nostromo)

_family_

Signora Teresa is a maternal figure to Nostromo, often scolding him but caring deeply for his well-being.

### [Nostromo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/characters/nostromo)

_family_

Signora Teresa is a maternal figure to Nostromo, often scolding him but caring deeply for his well-being.

## In the story

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/chapters/iii)

Giorgio's wife, terrified and praying, calls out for Nostromo and blames him for not being there.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/chapters/iv)

Shows fear and bitterness after the riot; criticizes Nostromo's vanity and lack of conscience; suffers from chronic pain.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/chapters/vii)

Dying woman who wanted Nostromo to fetch a priest; he refused, and the guilt weighs on him.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/chapters/i)

Mentioned as being ill; Dr. Monygham reports that he can do no more for her, and she has been left behind.

### [Chapter VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/chapters/viii)

Mentioned as deceased; Nostromo recalls her words and feels remorse for not bringing a priest.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/characters/signora_teresa
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/nostromo_se/characters