UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS

Departamento de Letras Modernas

(Leituras do Cânon I - FLM0577)

A reading of ‘The monk’

Sexuality issues.

Guilherme Augusto Pereira Gomes (8974572)

Prof. Dra. Sandra Guardini Teixeira Vasconcelos

SÃO PAULO

2017
Abstract

The aim of this brief work is an attempt of reading the eighteenth century gothic novel
The Monk,​ by ​Matthew Lewis with a focus in the sexuality inversions that this novel carries.
Will try to explain some important aspects about its plot, considering its heavy sexual
content, trying to highlight some key points that can help to clarify some issues addressed in
this novel. Thus, an analysis is not intended here, but rather a more careful reading of some
narrative details, focusing, when helpful, the characters roles, in order to approximate as
much as possible an interpretive (less analytical) coherence.

The main focus here is the relationship of religious taboos of the time and (narrative
time and historical time, real) sexuality, and how characters (Ambrosio and Antonio,
specifically) navigate between these dogma dimensions. Observing this, the importance of
such aspects is clarified, and, consecutively, a clearer reading of the work tend to be found.

Keywords: Sexuality, Gothic, Catholicism, Reading, Taboos.

Introduction

The Monk is an historical gothic novel written by ​Matthew Lewis in 1796, and his
work is certainly noted by the critic as one of the most elaborated and well written among the
classic gothic novels that were published in the eighteenth century. The date of its publication
seems like to sync with a particularly sensitive period in european history when the ​zeitgeist
paradigm are being changed and shifts were taking place at the most important social,
cultural, economic, and political spheres throughout the occident.

From the beginning, the novel portrays and reveals to us sexuality as a central ‘issue’
and it also escalates some meaningful ​topoi’s of "catholic subversion", surrounded by lust
and incest. It also approaches the complicated - by the time - theme of homoerotic sexuality
which have shocked those readers who was used to the more chaste oeuvres. The thesis that
will be briefly discussed here is that this novel brings voice to the sexuality taboo and
repression that was established by the religious ​status quo (mainly catholicism) by the time
and how this transgression could be an intersection for a canon-formation.
 This paper tends to concentrate on the significance of sexuality and religious dogmas
inversions that can be found in the novel, while it makes references to the gendered language
of femininity and masculinity. Its also extended the research to the way that these inversions
inform about the connection between misogyny and feminine; the protestant discourse of the
eighteenth century.

Always keeping in mind part of Watt’s study, that publishing technologies likely
contributed to the general ‘spread’ of literacy in europe and somehow promoted the
expansion of a more wide literary market, making these works more accessible to segments
of society whose contact with written texts had previously been scarce, thus creating a
considerable impact on cultural economies. The middle class was growing at a remarkable
rate and it rapidly asserted itself as a powerful force at all levels of discursive practices,
greatly influencing previously established hierarchies and high/low polarities.

The Sexuality Issue - Ambrosio & Antonia

The taboos implied by the Catholicism pureness has in fact somehow “promoted’
deviant sexual practices among the people. The sexual repression of catholic dogmas
stimulated the obscure insincerity that covered the orgiastic sexuality carried out in convents
and monasteries. England had a period of sex demonization, being seen as bizarre and as a
wrong humane culture. This ideological formation was taken very serious, and was part of the
national identity of protestants in England. Moreover, this oeuvre was published at the time
when france was at war with England; the Revolution was still linked with ​the terror and as a
result of it, there were a series of political anxieties that could be translated into some cultural
manners, as sexual issues, taking in particular the issue of masculinity and femininity. These
matters are deeply represented in ​The Monk​.

Although the critic fortune have been for a long time focused on the ​erotic ​(=/=
sexual) dimensions of the novel, its many inversions and issues with sexuality and religion, as
well the ideological implications of it attendants, may have not yet been systematically
evaluated. The author in his writing performs linguistically a subversion and an inversion of
the traditional and dogmatic purposes of sex and religion, corresponding it with the ironical
satanic ceremonies in the novel.

Anti-Catholicism ideology can be found in ​The Monk as personified through the

character Ambrosio, a chief and catholic villain. Ambrosio was found as an infant at the door,
in an abbey, and then it was raised by the church personnel, becoming later a flair person.
Having been raised by and under the church provisions, Ambrosio has turned an abbot, and
this fact was celebrated in the whole city of Madrid; Ambrosio was respected for his virtue
and particularly by his strict respect for chastity. Although always seen in a 'feminine'
position, as a young virgin who is sheltered and protected in order to maintain his virtue and
innocence. Moreover, Ambrosio is not that familiar to the mundane world and its
temptations, being somehow ‘pure’ of heart.
In ​The Monk,​ this kind of emphasis on monastic male chastity by the religion, which
is normally a condemned (or damned) theme in protestant’s literature has its base in female
virtues (virginity), which has been a ​topos in most of the novels and by some conduct books
of the nineteenth century. Bearing this in mind, the character of Ambrosio is particularly
related to Antonia who is also a sheltered and protected young virgin-girl, being equally
unknown to the mundane world and its temptations, just like Ambrosio (p. 12). Antonia and
Ambrosio are related, but both of them are not aware of this blood relationship since they had
been separated during their early ages (another ​topos​). Both seems to have a sublimated,
mutual incestuous attraction.

Lorenzo clarified Ambrosio’s identity to Antonia and Leonella (aunt). A "present"

from Virgin Mary (p.17), Ambrosio who was thirty at that time, had lived in seclusion from
the outside, and therefore knew nothing about sex, being "a strict observer of chastity and
knew nothing of what consisted the difference between a man and a woman" (p.17).

Matthew seems like to use suggestively a gendered language in order to make the
male figure appears like a holy virtuous female madonna. There is no difference between man
and woman, because here, in this point of view, everybody is being seen as of the same sex;
brother and sister together (pp17-18). We do have a point here with these metaphors that
suggestively gendered the language. It tends to demonstrate somehow that the vows of
chastity in catholic are made through and susceptible to hypocrisy, being the temptation by
their sexual ignorance a key. Rosaria (whose real name was Matilda), a novitiate, discloses
that Ambrosio is actually a woman. Just like Antonia, Ambrosio was supposed to forget that
Matilda was a woman because she had disguised her sex so that she could be friends with
Leonella and shield him from sexual knowledge (p.63).

Matilda is actually an evil spirit (demon) who pretends to be a woman (being a man),
exploiting the sexual controversy and meanwhile reinforce this confusion of gender roles in
the novel. Sexual knowledge here can be seen as the “forbidden fruit”, that allusively
attempts feminized monk to fall in disgrace. The demon Matilda is the archetypal ​femme
fatale who later corrupts the virtues of ​the monk​. Ambrosio’s ignorance on sexual matters
make him very susceptible to Matilda's seduction. He evaluates this repressed attraction to
Matild in this excerpt ​"may I not safely credit her assertions? Will it not be easy for me to
forget her sex and consider her as my friend and as my disciple?, She strove to keep me in
ignorant of her sex.. She has not made attempts to rouse my slumbering passions, nor has she
ever conversed with me till this night on the subject of love"​ (PP.66-67).

Ignorance and innocence when it comes to sex is nothing more than an illusion, hence
Ambrosio is easily lured into sexual relationship with the deceiving Matilda: The sexual
repression ends up in the very knowledge which the monk was denying. Ambrosio is also
further feminized by vocabulary that is specifically gendered but contextually differentiated
(male - female).

Conclusion

For sure there are a prevalent theme in this gothic novel; morality tale is juxtaposed
onto a horrific and also violent plot, that is laden with perceived supernaturalism (see the
“Gothic Novel” chapter in “Dez Lições Sobre o Romance Inglês do Século XVIII”). This
morality ​topos as a tale is a very well done work of literature that is designed and vehiculated
in order to inculcate the audience with theses specific ethical perceptions, while it’s outlined
by the experiences of the protagonist, showing how (his or her, whatever here) virtuous
decisions lead to these favorable denouements, and, in contrast, their iniquitous actions
contribute to their downfalls.

Lewis utilizes many of these conventions, moreover modifies some of these common
aspects, attributing new elements of his own nature.This thematic usage of the morality tale is
conventional in that it shows the downfall of the depraved, but yet is also innovative, because
it has an overall lack of divine intercession and incorporates the unfortunate sacrifice of
innocent characters in the course of its narrative.
The Monk seems unique to this eighteenth century spirit, that have such words like
virtue, innocence, shame and honor as a maximum gendered significance. A word like virtue,
from Latin word ​vir - m​ an, while ​virtus implied masculine strength in general. ​The Monk ​is
respected for his virtue, particularly his chastity, and this virtue, in the other hand, can serve
the other side, that will make him susceptible and weak to temptations (of sex). Ambrosio is
indisputable, since he had grown up in the monastery, therefore he is not ready to face the
world and its temptations. Here, in the outside world, his virtue and righteousness was put to
test. And he failed.

Bibliography

BROOKS, Peter. Virtue And Terror: The Monk. The John Hopkins University Press, 1973.

LEWIS, Matthew. ​The Monk,​ Gutenberg Project (PDF)*

WATT, Ian. The rise of the novel: studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. London:
Chatto & Windus, 1957.

Vasconcelos, Sandra Guardini T. Dez lições sobre o romance inglês do século XVIII. São
Paulo: Boitempo, 2002.