Babys Come from Storks, and Sex is Unnecessary. Right?

           Sexual repression as a concept has been with the readings in this class since the syllabus titled it “The impossible, perverse and strange.” Perversion is simply a cultural association of sex with the negative. Sex is a natural part of life, and there is no innate reason for it to be considered wrong. Yet, history demonstrates that in the past, such as during the Victorian era, that sex is in fact improper. To pervert something means to turn it from what is right or proper, and when society decided sex was perverted it tried to eliminate it altogether. The evidence of humanities continual existence shows that society found that was impossible and chose to instead suppress the sexual nature of people. As such, sexual repression is a common factor in many different societies, and often represents the “dark underbelly” of those societies. Sex is associated with all sorts of negative things which is why whole cultures try to ignore and repress it. However, repression is not just a cultural act, but also one of identity. For example sex, as base act, is one of the few things that humans have in common with animals. In an effort to separate themselves from the animals and appear “refined” people will claim to cast it off. In this manner the repression of sex becomes a characteristic of anyone wanting to be “refined”. The need to hide the sexual portion of one’s personal identity is almost as old as the deed itself, and in fact part of that person or character’s identity as well. Depending on the reasons for repression, the nature of sex defines people and characters differently. This means that the question of sexual repression, as many of our readings have shown, is not about the “if” of a character repressing their sexual side, but the “why?” The answers to these questions have trickled out across the semester revealing various snippets about each character in the readings.

“The Bloody Chamber” is one of the stories in which this is most clear. Our heroine mentions that she fears that the marquis can see the beginnings of a perversion in her, and indeed he might. What is more concerning is that she feels that it is within her in the first place. If it were not, how could he see it, and why should she worry? We are lead to believe that she is innocent for exactly the reasons Susilo says in Burden of Blood but that seems to be merely a front, because her disobedience, seems to be more deliberate in agency than accidental. Though she may not have been planning to open the forbidden door since the day she arrived, the action itself is in direct opposition to the man trying to control her making it an act of rebellion rather than happenstance.

As stated in 50 Shades of Bloody Chamber and the ensuing comment the ruby choker is indeed a fascinating symbol. The choker does in fact represent all those things, carnal desire, wealth, and submission, but I feel there is more to it. A choker is binding, worn tightly, and because of that proximity, the choker becomes more of a symbol of the girl wearing it that some other stand alone article worn. A dress might symbolize chastity but could come off during sex. Shoes and a tiara might also be “symbols” of the girl, but are ultimately capable of being separated from her. However a choker especially in the context of the story, likely stay on, even during sex. It makes the girl herself a fetish object. Though she may have once appeared naïve and chaste, whatever the marquis may see in her is brought to the surface by the sheer presence of the choker. The heroine of “The Bloody Chamber” is terrified not of what someone else may do to her, but by what may ultimately be inside her waiting to escape. This sort of fear is what would cause her to strive to repress that side, though the story seems to claim that exposure to an environment accepting of that “darkness”, such as the marquis castle, could bring it out regardless.

           “MyLast Duchess” is not far from “Bloody Chamber” when referring to women and sex. The poem shows how harshly society wanted any form of sexuality repressed. The Duke kills his Duchess simply because she “smiled” too much. We are only left to imagine what he may have done should she have actually strayed. Duke, you silver tounged devilyou, brings to the forefront this level of control and individualizes it, but again I think this can be drawn out further. Society was at a stage in which sex was to monogamous and not mentioned. The case of “My Last Duchess” is extreme, but not inaccurate, because women who could not follow the rules of society were looked down upon to such an extent that this period made popular the “fallen woman” archetype. It seemed any extent of accepting your sexuality or embracing it could brand you a sexual deviant.

Speaking of, we talked in depth of Oscar Wilde, and his case. The case of Oscar Wilde is often used as the defining keystone for demonstrating the repression present in Victorian society. Wilde is a venerable portrait of the era. There was only a brief post about Wilde's “The Importance of Being Earnest” in which he was described as mocking Victorian society, but Wilde himself flew in the face of Victorian society. In the Adut article it is stated that Victorian society would have normally tolerated people such as Oscar Wilde, and that his case was actually a manner of degree of blatancy rather than of just being homosexual. This is likely wishful thinking, I can hardly find evidence for this, in history or literature. In this manner I am inclined to agree with Hera Cook in Anna Clark's article. Sexual expression is indeed inhibited by the negative associations it holds. Wilde himself, was a well known homosexual, and made allusions to such things in his writings, especially The Picture of Dorian Gray. This too was discussed in the Clark article which explains that homosexuality was looked down upon beginning very early in history. As an aesthetic Wilde was bound to be flamboyant and his whole personage was one of acceptance of himself. Despite the consequences of his sexuality and the public struggles he had, Wilde embodied sexual acceptance. Society however responded by putting a well known, if not respected author and artists in prison. In a sense the imprisonment of Wilde was a physical representation of Victorian society's repression of sexuality.

Both Case in Point, and Hidden Hyde, describe their surprise at the sexual implications of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, yet their understanding of the story is spot on. Jekyll is, like Wilde and his imprisonment, a representation of the two sides of Victorian society. Especially appropriate is Hidden Hyde's characterization of Jekyll and Hyde as the ego and id respectively. Hyde's darker more devious nature is in constant conflict with Jekyll who is the face for society attempting to control those desires. Despite that, the whole story occurs because Jekyll tries to rid himself of the urges that become the personality Hyde. In group discussion, the point was made that in the text Hyde (as sexuality) is innate in the person who is Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll in turn states that he always knew he had “dark urges”, and it was mentioned (again in discussion) that Jekyll is most like Victorian society because he was unwilling to get rid of the potion and forsake Hyde altogether. One of my group members also suggested that the connection between Hyde and sex is further developed in the fact that his is ugly, but for no “discernible reason”. Victorian society might see sex as this devious, animalistic, base act, but it creates life, and is only given that negative connotation by society itself.

If sexuality is repressed most frequently with negative associations then “Why Shouldna Poor Folk Mowe” provides excellent evidence as well. Burn’s words here make both a social and sexual statement. During class some fairly basic conclusions were made about how the poor have nothing to enjoy but sex, while the upper classes enjoy finery and power. Once we were deeper involved in the discussion however, the fact that many terrible things could have been avoided had the rich had a “mowe” instead of committing the aforementioned deeds, provided some interesting insight. The poor are not capable of making the choices that the ruling class is, so they mowe instead. This does two things, first it creates an association between the poor and sex, our negative association, and secondly it puts sex on the same level of the things that the rich did. In the second connection the act of sex is interchangeable with other deeds, in a “Instead you could have…” mentality.

       Out over the Rhine proud Prussia wad shine,

       To spend his best blood he did vow;

       But Frederic had better ne'er forded the water,

       But spent as he docht in a mowe.

In this Burns almost argues against sexual repression, instead claiming that things would be better if the ruling class had “less time on their hands.”

Repression in the literature we read was not only about class distinction. It would be impossible to make an argument regarding the presence of sexual repression in literature and ignore the influence of the church. In Crazy Jane.. whatsmypassowrd? mentions that the bishop looks down upon Jane in “Crazy Jane Talks to the Bishop” for being “unchaste”. It is indeed likely that Jane refused the advances of the Bishop at one point or another, and this only serves to further the two-faced nature of sexuality. For if the church condemns the act of sex, then the Bishop would be hypocritcal in his “attempts” on Jane. At the same time I must admit I had not considered Jane's message to be one of liberation the way whatsmypassword? had. With a hopeful and happy message, Yeats would be arguing that liberating yourself sexually has positive influences on the soul. This would imply that such things are not devious by nature, but again, only labeled as such by society. This happens to be basically the same argument made in A forsaken love, in which the struggle between religion and not only sex, but love are brought to light. The the fact that the woman in question has children with the merman draws that final important connection between sex and love.

Sex is an act, but sexual repression is more. Sexual repression is a deeply telling characteristic of a character. When a reader stops to ask “Why?” the motives driving a character to hide their sexual nature reveal more about them than anticipated. In that sense the “Why?” question should be one of the first asked. Society from very early on, has tried to hide it's sexual nature, because in revealing it people and indeed society itself become vulnerable. Fear of that vulnerability drives people to lie and hide the sexual part of themselves, when it seems that literature advocates opening yourself and accepting sex as a part of life. Without it not one human being would remain, and society could not exist at all. Sex creates life, while life grants us the opportunity to write, and that seems like a good reason to let go and accept that sex happens.

Sources & Reading

A Theory of Scandal: Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar Wilde

      Ari Adut, American Journal of Sociology , Vol. 111, No. 1 (July 2005), pp. 213-248 

Clark, Anna. "The History Of Sexuality." History Today 61.9 (2011): 57-58. World
      History Collection. Web. 9 May 2013.

Tuzin, Donald. "The Forgotten Passion: Sexuality And Anthropology In The Ages Of Victoria And    

      Bronislaw." Journal Of The History Of The Behavioral Sciences 30.2 (1994): 114-137. Academic 

      Search Complete. Web. 9 May 2013.
 http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/sextheory.html

I probably should have mentioned "Gunga Din" during the awkward silence

When going through the epitaphs I was a little surprised that no one brought up the similarities between "A Servant", "Native Water-Carrier" and "Gunga Din"; though I'm more to blame for that than anyone else as the one who saw it and said nothing. There is some separation of years between the two, but coming from the same man it's hard not to see the evolution of his thoughts.
    For those not familiar with "Gunga Din", it's about a water carrier who is not treated well by the British soldiers. The speaker of the poem is shot, and Gunga Din comes to stop the bleeding and bring the man water, only to be shot dead. The famous closing lines of the poem are where I drew my connection to "The Years Between".
   Though I've belted you and flayed you,
   By the livin' Gawd that made you,
   You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
   Since "The Years Between" are in fact epitaphs I almost see the "A Servant" and "Native Water Carrier"  as about "Gunga Din". I don't mean to draw some detailed lineage between the poems and claim Kipling was specifically trying to write out a character, but the connection is to strong to be ignored. At the very least it shows just how strong Kipling felt about the use of native peoples and their treatment, as well as class divisions. In both "A Servant" and "Gunga Dun" Kipling claims that in death the servant and Din are the better men based on their actions and despite the obvious class separation.
   "Native Water Carrier" ends with the lines, "The Gods are jealous-now, as then, They gave no quarter" implying that the Gods showed no discretion when it came to the death of the water carrier, which argue for the equality of death. When taken into consideration with "Gunga Din" and "A Servant" Kipling's overall argument becomes more complex than this, his view of death is defined as the great equalizer that cares not for race, class, or quality of person. I don't mean to be overstretching any of this, but Kipling is not a poet of coincidence, and so I felt this was not to be ignored.

This is an intervention. Alice, put down the bottle.

    As I said in class, I firmly believe Alice is an entitled brat. She takes without consideration without regards for ownership and then demands that others solve the problems she creates. On further reflection though I can see this as a vehicle for criticism of the upper class, and possibly the monarchy. Being so well educated at such a young age Alice is clearly well off. If she is taken as a literal representation of the upper class, then even the fact that she is a child is a slight jab. That's how the court system behaves, like a bunch of children concerned with themeselves and not the task at hand. Alice's actions show little regard for the ownership of those less fortunate than her. ie the working class. For example any time she eats or drinks something that say "Eat Me" she follows the direction (societal expectations) even if it means stealing from the White Rabbit (subordinate to the Queen). I don't mean to say that Lewis Carroll is a communist advocating for the destruction of the upper class, simply that those with property simply take it from those with the means of production.

    The Duchess who should be another representation of authority also shows reform and is kinder to Alice when confronted with her own execution. Alice does show reform after she is confronted directly with elements of her personality that are innappropriate, as well. This is most notable after her interactions with the Duchess and the Queen. This argument becomes even more prominent if one has the opportunity to read Through the Looking Glass, where Alice actually becomes the queen herself and her age demonstrates she is possibly not the best queen. Through her own folly though, the child as queen does manage to pull herself together and improve.

Complex or Hypocracy?

   It seems odd to me that in an era marked in part by the resurgence of chivalry, that there be such a discrepancy on how to deal with the agency of women. The Lady of Shalot is left with the the task of weaving, using her mirror both for her work and to see the world. These things are distinctly feminine and all is well for her as long as she continues her "women's work". It is not until she leaves her work and the tower to serve her own purposes that she is is cast down and killed by the curse. Aside from whatever commentary this may have about creating art or industrialism, this acts a "lesson" for how women should behave, "If you leave your station in life this is what will happen to you".
   In My Last Duchess, the women in question is held as a on the wall. The late duchess is his example of how he deals with women that won't obey or appreciate him. This is even more heavy handed because the duke directly takes the life of the duchess who leaves him. What's even more disparaging here is that the Duke is in the middle of dowry discussion, which shows that Duchess for him are easily replaced. His choice of art in the statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse simply furthers this.
    The difference between the two views here on the agency of women, is that Browning's poem could be seen ostensibly as a way of bringing this negative view on female agency into light for criticism, while Tennyson seems to have simply used it as a metaphor. I don't know for certain what Tennyson's take on women's agency was, but the way he uses it here implies that he sees it as a fact of life. Even if one tries to see the Lady of Shalot as bringing the problem into light the way Duchess does it still seems just like a idea thrown in with everything else he wanted to say. Though this may just be a vented frustration of mine, to me it hardly seems to even call out chivalry's name.

Where are my helmets?

   I'm fining I love the way elements of the Gothic are present in everything we read and that those elements are evolving slowly. To that end there are two things I find distinctly striking about Romance of the Forest. The first is the obviously Gothic supernatural crux, or rather, in this case, the lack thereof. There is nothing nearly as obtrusive and distinct as Castle of Otranto and it's recurring helmet. Instead Romance has the ever present issue of the sublime that we discussed with these beautifully eerie and poetic descriptions of the world and people. The world itself, especially in reference to the abbey, is filthy creepy and strange, yet I am entranced and pleased by what I hear about it's state of decay. For me that's what the poetry really accentuates, the depth and fluidity of the way we see the world and events of Romance.
   Secondly, the lack of a prophecy caught my attention, and by association, the division of the book in terms of perspective. Instead there is a form of prophecy that occurs every time some one tries to warn Adeline, especially once the book moves to be dominated by her perspective. This of course is in close relation to my first point, being as there are no "divine" prophecies handed down across generations, yet there is something odd to me about the way everyone seeks to warn Adeline in specific, and almost exclusively after we begin seeing things from her perspective.

An Educational Complaint

   The line between right and wrong is often said to be a matter of perspective, but people often mistake the meanings of these words with "correct" and "incorrect", which blurs the lines even further. In the context of The Negro's Complaint the issue of slavery is laid bare, in a way that appeals primarily to the moral compass. Yet in Pity for Poor Africans, Cowper does something different. He lays out his internal conflict, claiming that he knows that slavery is wrong "I own I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves," then turns to explain that though it would be right to try and end it the correct thing socially is to be silent. The excuses are both ridiculous and desperate, they reek of forced justification. Yet it is the story of the boy in school that really makes the poem.
   The boy in the story is against the idea of stealing the apples from a neighbor, it is initially strictly a moral issue. It is when the other children threaten to keep the apples they steal from him that he buckles. This portion mirrors the first half of the poem in which Cowper argues that though slavery is wrong it would be awful to be the only nation without. By taking the moral conundrum away from the touchy subject of slavery it becomes easier to see how frivolous the actual argument is. The fear isn't really to be without dessert in the first place, just to be the only one without. The whole poem becomes satirical and those who would pose such arguments are exposed as disingenuous. When the argument is considered from this angle it becomes apparent that the argument is strictly a social one.
   Remembering The Negroes Complaint, and how it poses that the issue of slavery goes against nature's claim of equality, an interesting opinion from the poet himself emerges. Cowper's poems are two halves to a whole. Half of his argument claims that slavery is not an issue of inequality, because skin color cannot  "forfeit nature's claim" and god himself would answer with fury upon it's proponents. The other half states that it is instead is a social, issue, thus concretely stating that society is in direct opposition to God in regards to slavery.

O' Brevity, Where Art Thou

   I indeed loved The Castle of Otranto, but it was the style of the writing that actually took me. Each and every page of the tale was littered with gorgeous descriptions of the characters places and events. All of the characters when introduced are underscored with some description, title or other qualifier. Nothing stands alone and that keeps the characters dynamic. Not only does it make for a more interesting read, but in a a way the descriptions become almost lyrical or even poetic. This creates a more interesting avenue in which to engage the story. The characters come to life with some trait revealed, such as the "hated boy" or "Isabella, whom every incident was sufficient to dismay", creating a three dimensionality that would otherwise take a much longer form to build. 
   With the characterization done every few lines the story itself is able to be expanded upon. Though there is relatively little that actually happens in Castle of Otranto, what does happen is in a vivid detail that comes through almost tangibly. Not only that, but it builds suspense through the use of repetition that further pulls the reader in, just so they can try and finally get whats going on. 
  AS we said in class all these things are clearly definitive attributes of the Gothic form, but what wasn't touched on is the fact that it works. This sort of writing elicits a reaction no matter what. Even those who may have felt bored to tears were frustrated at the pace, which was of course frustration was the point. When something like Gothic functions so well, and becomes reliable that's when it becomes a tool for messages. Often stories that are experimental or those that try hard to be different, lose their message, but the Gothic style is something that becomes a patent tool and functional innovation always has me impressed.