Transgendering in The Monk

In Brewer’s article he brought up some points I had never thought of while reading The Monk. He brings up how Matilda could have been human or she could have been a daemon. I do agree with him that Matilda was a human. When I was reading I just assumed she was human. It never even crossed my mind that she could be a daemon. I mean yea she was very manipulative and worked with the devil, but I just assumed she was like a devil worshiper or something. I guess she could have been a daemon, but it is mentioned that she paid the price for being healed from the snake poison. I just assumed this meant she sold her soul to the devil. She also says at the end of the book that she made a deal with the devil. These things say to me that she is human and had a soul. Brewer agrees that she is a human. He says, “Overall, the novel presents Matilda as human, as a free agent rather than the Devil’s passive instrument.” (pg 196) I do not think Matilda was just an instrument in the Devil’s plan. I think that her motives came from her. Yes she was evil, but I think the Devil just used her actions to help further his plan of tempting Ambrosio. I do not think that the Devil forced her to do any of the underhanded evil things she did.
Now moving to how Brewer feels about Ambrosio. Brewer states in his article, ”Ambrosio’s preference for a feminine male over a masculine woman can, of course, be seen as an indication of latent homosexuality.” (pg 198) I do not agree with this statement at all. I think Ambrosio is very heterosexual. This can be seen by his obvious obsession for women and sex. When he sees Matilda’s breast he is immediately excited and knows that he wants her. When he sees Antonia in the magical mirror and she is naked he needs to have her. He goes so far as to go against his vows as a monk and everything he believes to be with Matilda. Then he rapes Antonia. This does not seem homosexual at all to me. Brewers reason of him liking Matilda more when she is Rosario and the meek little boy instead of the strong, bossy woman just says to me that he wants to be in charge. This is seen by his raping of Antonia. He needs to feel that power. He does not like Rosario because he thinks Rosario is a boy, he likes Rosario because he feels he can control him. Matilda is beyond his control. Matilda’s whole personality seems to change when she changes from Rosario to Matilda. I think this is what Ambrosio does not like. Ambrosio has that weird obsession or fantasy that some if not most men have, of wanting to be with a girl who is seen as “innocent”. This is one of the reasons he likes Antonia so much. I mean he tried to rape her and she just got over it. She was portrayed to him as being very naïve and he liked that. I don’t think he liked that Matilda wasn’t that same naïve creature she seemed to be when she was Rosario and that is why Ambrosio no longer wanted to be with her. I do not see how Ambrosio can be considered homosexual at all, give is very heterosexual tendencies.

The Monk: The Catholic Church

A reoccurring theme throughout The Monk is in reality, bashing the Catholic Church. I think this is a pretty obvious thing that Matthew Lewis does in the book. The title itself already has you thinking about the Catholic Church. Most of the really “bad” behaving characters in the novel are from the church. We have Ambrosio, obviously, who is a very sexual being when it comes down to it. We have Agnes who is the nun who is pregnant. I even found that a very small and seemingly insignificant character went against the church. When Don Raymond was telling his story to Lorenzo, we hear of Marguirite’s past. She was telling of how her love had died and she had been given to another member of the banditti. She says, “They cast lots to deicide to whose possession I should fall. I became the property of the infamous Baptiste. A robber, who had once been a monk…” (pg.108) I find this interesting that Lewis would deicide to make even a small character who we hear little about, a monk. This man was now a member of the feared banditti. He killed many innocent people. This man was at one point a monk. There are many other characters that do not perform the way “holy” people ought to throughout the book, these are just a few. It just goes to show how little stock Lewis put into the Catholic Church. It is like he pokes fun at it. I can see why many parents would not like their children reading this novel. It makes them really question their faith. I mean there are other reasons why parents wouldn’t want their children to read The Monk too, but I do think Lewis’ outright distaste for the Catholic Church could be one of them.
Lewis pokes fun of the church in another way. Near the end of the book when the crowd is burning the convent, some of the nuns go down into the tomb’s the take refuge. Here they are all very afraid. I think this a reasonable enough response. I mean people are trying to kill them. It is down here thought that, to me, it seems like Lewis is making fun of their intelligence. “Alone therefore, and in darkness, he prepared to pursue his design, while the nuns were contented to offer up prayers for his success and safety.” (pg. 315) Here Lorenzo is being very courageous and about to go into the dark abyss and he has to go alone. The nuns were described before as being “timid”, but they cannot even go without a light so Lorenzo can see. They then are “contented” to pray for safety. I found this funny. I get this picture of the Lorenzo going down the stairs into complete darkness and above him there is a circle of nuns on their knees praying. They forget the danger and pray. I am not trying to say that praying is bad, but it can only get you so far. Praying was not going to go down those steps and rescue the moaning person. I just think this makes the nuns seem unintelligent. They were afraid of the statue and then once it presented no danger they forgot all about it and moved on to the next thing to be afraid of. It makes the nuns look dumb and it makes you wonder if all nuns are that way. Are these the people you want to be behind your church?