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Sexuality in literature
Sexuality in literature
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“We must understand the real meaning of the words of the Gospel,--Matthew, V. 28,--that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery '; and these words relate to the wife, to the sister, and not only to the wife of another, but especially to one 's own wife.” (Tolstoy 195). These were the final lines of text Tolstoy wrote as a part of the resolution to his short story, The Kreutzer Sonata. According to this verse, and the themes in several others of his other works, Liev Tolstoy provides us a display of his moral view of right and wrong in relation to desire. He uses marital affairs & human desires as a tool to explore morality and the right and wrong ways of how his characters observe and react to their experiences …show more content…
His writing displays more morally proactive instruction with religious references or emphasis on the pain and suffering our submission to temptation can inflict. With his progression in understanding human nature, he simultaneously makes the result of succumbing to desire or committing adultery in his novels increasingly worse over time. His works suggest that erotic desire, including the desire to have an affair, is a part of human nature and to a degree understandable. However, Tolstoy wants his audience to understand that even though it may be human nature, we should not allow this desire to dictate the ways in which we live our lives, for desire is fickle and does not lead to lasting happiness. Tolstoy shows that the consequences of affairs serving our desires outweigh the benefits. The consequences not only harm ourselves, but many people in our lives. By showing how much damage an affair can cause, Tolstoy implores us to not allow the animal in man to overcome our moral …show more content…
He needed to ignore this desire if he truly wanted to continue to practice living a more meaningful and honest life. Over time Olenin gives in, and allows his desire to best his moral code and dedication to his new life by attempting to win Maryanka over for the first time (Tolstoy 140). As I have mentioned in a previous works, his decision to win over Maryanka contradicts the moral life he so desired for. Rather, his actions speak to his previous life and true nature. Just as he recognizes his failure both to his honest new life and the moral code he attempted to abide by, we begin to see Tolstoy’s view of this behavior and that our desires are inseparable from human nature (Tolstoy 149). However, even after this realization, Olenin tries to win Maryanka’s affections over for the second time only this time to make matters ethically worse, Olenin abandon’s viewing the battle between the Cossack and Chechen people to win her over (Tolstoy 175). Olenin knows that Lukashka is fighting the Chechen’s, and while he is preying on Maryanka, Luka is shot in the abdomen at point blank range by a Chechen man. Rather than having been at the battle to at least help Luka, he is attempting to take Maryanka from him. Olenin asks her for her hand once again and is again rejected by her(Tolstoy 176). He has betrayed Maryanka’s request to not be pursued twice and has taken advantage of her honest friendship
Criticizing the cruelty of society, Baudelaire begins his book, Flowers of Evil, with a warning. To foreshadow the disturbing contents that his book focuses on, Baudelaire describes the unpleasant traits of men. Lured by the words of the Devil, people victimize others. Grotesque images of torture and swarming maggots exemplifies the horrors of our actions. Yes, our actions. Baudelaire puts shame to every human, including the reader, through the word “ours.” Humiliated, the reader dare not to allow himself to be guilty with the worst sin – boredom. Separated by dashes, the last sentence commands the reader to choose whether to fall to the worst or save himself a little bit of dignity. Accused and challenged, the reader is pressured to ponder
In conclusion, both of these pieces of work were written in their cultural and historical context. I attempted to compare the two in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes and explain them in their cultural and historical context. Dangerous Liaisons was considered to be a condemned piece of literature and Cruel Intentions emphasized this immorality as a modernized version of the story.
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment incorporates the significance of murder into the novel through a multitude of levels. The act of killing is not only used to further the plot point of the novel, but also offers insight to the reader of Raskolnikov’s ideology and psyche. This is portrayed through both his initial logic and reasoning behind the plotting of the crime, as well as through his immediate and long term reactions after killing Alyona Ivanovna. The emotional and physical responses instilled in Raskolnikov after killing Alyona Ivanovna as well as his justification for doing so helps illustrate his utilitarianism by offering accurate insight into the character’s moral values. These reactions also serve to show the instability of Raskolnikov’s character due to his changing emotions from being completely justified as the ubermensch to showing a sense of great regret. By including the act of killing, Dostoevsky further develops Raskolnikov’s character, and provides another level of detail to readers concerning his ideology and beliefs prior to his actions.
The problem we find in this story, and in puritanism, is that it presents contrasting views of love. Attachment to earthly possessions, to other people in fact, is discouraged, because everything physical leads to temptation and damnation, and ultimately hell, while the road to salvation of the individual wanders through a spiritual discipline, rigour, austerity. A man should not love his wife more than he loves God; in fact, it is recommended that he not derive pleasure from his wife, but rather seek suffering, in order to redeem himself from his earthly condition, his impure state.
He starts off by speaking to what beauty is, and it’s definition. Tolstoy has declined any type of definition of art based on a concept of “beauty”. There is no objective way of describing or defining beauty. Tolstoy’s thoughts are that beauty is what pleases us. My disagreement on that is, there are many different things that could please me but could not please another individual. Beauty to me might be something inner, while someone else can argue that it’s all about outside looks. Tolstoy refers to beauty’s definition as absolutely perfect. He states the type of pleasure we tend to obtain from beauty is that which satisfies us without inducing any desire in
It is of particular interest to look at sexuality in relation to the modern daily life. What may seem abnormal and even abject in daily life is constitutive in human sexuality. It goes beyond normal functioning, rationality, and purposefulness, making sexuality inherently excessive. The discrepancy between the sexual and daily life connotes the otherness of sexuality. Freud mentions this in Three Essays on The Theory of Sexuality in his contention that perversion should be used a term of reproach: “no healthy person, it appears, can fail to make some addition that might be called perverse to the normal sexual aim.” Although he may have been focusing on the abnormal particularities in normal sexual life, this idea expounds ...
The application of morality begins at a young age for many people. Many children take on the morality of their parents through the daily events that influence their development. In many ways, parental sexuality means fidelity, and the ability to stay monogamous in order to properly raise a child in a complete family unit. This in turn expresses sexual fidelity as a form of morality, and without sexual fidelity, there will be painfully undesirable consequences. Along with the family unit being an influential aspect of sexuality, religion, particularly Catholicism, claim that sexual activity is solely justified by the reason of procreation. Freud also perceived sexuality as the dark and evil part of the human being, when allowed to freely express sexuality, the person i...
The short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, deals with the subject of adultery. The story takes place in the early 1900’s. There are two main characters, Calixta (the wife) and Alcee (the former lover). Alcee must take refuge from a passing storm in Calixta’s house, while he is there the two end up making love while Calixta’s husband and son have to wait out the storm at the local store. By doing this Chopin implies the theme that is, adultery is natural and does not necessarily have negative consequences. Through out the story the constant changing of imagery plays a great role in the development of characters and their ability to demonstrate the theme.
Love caused his logic and sensibility to fail him, and provoked him to commit monstrous acts that destroyed many lives. Through analysis of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, it can be concluded that one of her many intended lessons was to show the value and the powerful effects of love. Atwood successfully proved this lesson by using powerful examples of both successful and disastrous relationships to illustrate the positive and negative effects of love. Atwood truly demonstrated what it is like to follow your heart.
Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, portrays this distinction between love and lust through a morally complicated and controversial story. The story consists of many layered themes, which a reader must first sort through in order to make sense of the question of love. The subject most explicitly present in Lolita is pedophilia. Because we live in world of pre-conceived and ingrained societal norms regarding what is “morally acceptable” and “kosher,” and because pedophilia is generally considered one of the most heinous and immoral of crimes, many readers cringe at the very mention of such a topic and, therefore, fail to recognize the underlying and essential question of love verses lust present in the novel. In order to achieve a true understanding of Lolita, a reader must set aside such societal norms and pre-conceived notions. Gaining a true understanding of Nabokov’s novel requires an open and unbiased mind.
James Bond is known as the worlds’ greatest spy, Superman is known as the worlds’ greatest superhero and Harry Potter is known as the worlds’ greatest wizard. These gentlemen are present as the “world greatest”, but there was a struggle for them to get that title, a struggle for recognition. Recognition has been a struggle for people for a long time in history and it is mainly displayed within literature. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a great philosopher who explains the struggle for recognition by using the master-slave dialectic. This analytic is common among humans especially within relationships. Hegel explains that the goal of the master is to stay the master, while the goal of the slave is to become the master that means the roles can indeed switch but there is a struggle between the two.
to works which, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest in sex; which
In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the overruling drive of the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is his want to attest himself master of all, whether man or woman, his prime cravings, all-powerful destiny, or even something as broad as language. Through the novel the reader begins to see Humbert’s most extreme engagements and feelings, from his marriage to his imprisonment, not as a consequence of his sensual, raw desires but rather his mental want to triumph, to own, and to control. To Humbert, human interaction becomes, or is, very unassuming for him: his reality is that females are to be possessed, and men ought to contest for the ownership of them. They, the women, become the very definition of superiority and dominance. But it isn’t so barbaric of Humbert, for he designates his sexuality as of exceptionally polished taste, a penchant loftier than the typical man’s. His relationship with Valerie and Charlotte; his infatuation with Lolita; and his murdering of Quilty are all definite examples of his yearning for power. It is so that throughout the novel, and especially by its conclusion, the reader sees that Humbert’s desire for superiority subjugates the odd particularities of his wants and is the actual reason of his anguish.
While it has traditionally been men who have attached the "ball and chain" philosophy to marriage, Kate Chopin gave readers a woman’s view of how repressive and confining marriage can be for a woman, both spiritually and sexually. While many of her works incorporated the notion of women as repressed beings ready to erupt into a sexual a hurricane, none were as tempestuous as The Storm.
When analyzing Freud’s psychosexual theory it is vital to note that he connected human drives to those of animals, thus indicating that these human drives can be broken down to a basic need for survival. Freud believed sexuality to be the most dominant biological force in determining human behavior. Freud’s theory becomes exceedingly convincing one is able to grasp the concept that his theories on sexuality and drive energy correspond more to drives and fulfillments rooted in bodily activity, than that of erotic stimulation or sexual satisfaction (Anderson & Taylor, 2007,