“All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, . . . for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” (Woolf 91)
Born in 1640, Aphra Behn broke gender stereotypes when she undertook a thrilling (if unrewarded) life as a spy for the Crown, but it was her scandalous career as an author which truly achieved many firsts for women. She was the first woman to support hereself financially by solely relying on the profession of writing, and many readers argue that Oroonoko–her passionate tale about the institution of slavery–was the first English novel. She was certainly one of the first female authors to write candidly about sexuality: in fact, she both broke new ground and challenged conceptions of patriarchal power when she wrote about women’s empowerment through sexuality. In her poems “The Willing Mistress” (from her play The Dutch Lover, 1673) and “The Disappointment” (1680), Behn creates situations of bold sexual mischief in which female characters are aware of, comfortable with, and even thrive off their sexuality.
Not only was it virtually unheard of for a woman of Behn’s time to express herself openly as a sexual being, but it was also explicitly forbidden by cultural precepts for a woman to so aggressively take charge of her own physical desires and satisfaction, as Behn’s characters do. Previously, men were in control of most sexual situations–both in real life and in literature. Behn, however, creates a playing field where the traditional roles not only do not apply but are subverted. Urged to seize the day, Behn’s willing mistress does so, following her lover into the bushes and co…
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…dent women created from Behn’s mind refute her era’s consensus that … Behn conveys that women can control their own destiny; they can hold the power. Although these sentiments were certainly ahead of their time, they did help pave the way for future generations of women to express themselves honestly, sexually or otherwise. For that, all women are indeed eternally indebted to Aphra Behn.
Works Cited
Behn, Aphra. “The Disappointment.” The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. 2nd ed. Eds. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: Norton, 1996. 112-115.
—. “The Willing Mistress.” Norton. 111.
Bradstreet, Anne. “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment.” Norton. 89.
Woolf, Virginia. “Aphra Behn.” Excerpted from A Room of One’s Own. Reprinted in Virginia Woolf: Women and Writing. Ed. Michele Barrett. New York: Harvest, 1979. 89-91.
Sex, Sensuality and Religion in The Book of Margery Kempe
Sex, Sensuality and Religion in The Book of Margery Kempe
Baron Richard Von Krafft-Ebing, a 19th century German psychiatrist, was quoted as having said, “We find that the sexual instinct, when disappointed and unappeased, frequently seeks and finds a substitute in religion.” This may have been the condition of Margery Kempe when she desired to cease all sexual activity with her spouse because of her devotion to God. Instead of performing her duties as a wife, she chose instead to spread her knowledge of God to her community and did so not only in speech, but also in literature. Whatever her motivation for creating such descriptive language, it is evident that her faith in God conquered both her fear of public opinion and the constraints placed upon all women during the period. Living in the 1400s, she steps out of a woman’s role and into the territory of a man by living her life publicly, abandoning her position of mother and wife, and recording her life in writing. Fortunately, because she was writing for religious reasons, her work was both permitted and accepted. In The Book of Margery Kempe, she describes her experiences with brilliant imagery, some of which is sexual, all of which is sensual. By using her own senses to portray her spiritual…
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… her faith as a sensual experience, Kempe creates a new way–for women in particular–to reach not just enlightenment but empowerment through worshipping God. If Margery Kempe were alive today, she would be considered eccentric but because of her creative book, she would still make it on Oprah’s Book Club list.
Works Cited
Kempe, Margery. “From The Book of Margery Kempe.” The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton