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The Monk 2/23/21 discussion - Coggle Diagram
The Monk
2/23/21 discussion
Genderbending Demon
In chp 6 Ambrosio grows bored and thinks, "But a few days had passed, since she appeared the mildest and softest of her sex, devoted to his will, and looking up to him as to a superior being. Now she assumed a sort of courage and manliness" (210) "ill calculated to please him" (210):
"he regretted Rosario, the fond, the gentle, and submissive" (210)--what if this unsettles sex from bodies/attractions, but from submissiveness and a power structure
still frames passivity as a stereotypical feminine
Ambrosio is a douchebag
Corruptibility and catholic church
critique of restraint and repression; maybe in line with Hobbesian "we're all animals" philosophy?
fantasy of Virgin mary is uncomfortable (pg 65)
suggests the dangers of restriction and repression. How might we build an argument that says Lewis is teaching us the danger sof repression?
"He never saw, much less conversed with the other sex: he was ignorant of the pleasures in woman's power to bestow" (215) Thinks about the ways we teach and raise and create cross-sex relationships; if Ambrosio saw more women, maybe this wouldn't be an issue?
illicit sexuality: end of chp 2: "sunk upon her bosom" "dunk with desire"--over passionate, animalistic/primal. Breaking vows.
turns into erotica
Matilda's performance of love versus Ambrosio who is very lustful. This
fanstasy
of "I just want to be near you" which Ambrosio takes as proof of future sex: "the preserver of his life, the adorer of his person" this is about domininon, domintation, and degredation
How does Matilda being a demon ironize or change our reading of this type of inequitable hetero-eroticism? IT'S THE FANATSY OF VIRGIN YOUTH
post-lust shame
"The burst of transport was passed: Ambrosio's lust was satisfied. Pleasure fled, and Shame usurped her seat in his bosom" (Chp 6, p204). Emotions are personified and Shame is made feminine "her seat"; seems to blame or turn back the source of emotions on Matilda
"Dangerous woman!" said he; "into what an abyss of misery have you plunged me!" (204)--playing the victim; sets up a gendered double standard for sex/sexuality; Renee Hernandez says, "we appreciate the double standard of a nun breaking her vow once and getting severely punished, but the holiest monk of all breaks his vow and continues to break it cuz he can"
Pride and lust are bad--thanks, Lewis, we get it; amplified
Whiteness and beauty
Antonia as pale: ""one ivory arm" (262)
"the delicacy of whose skin might have contended with snow in whiteness" (95); stand in for purity and innocence (which isn't not not about race)
baking in racism for how we frame "delicacy" and proper/pure women
fun fact, Lewis inherited his family's plantations in Jamaica, so....