Public Sexual Female Self -- Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 2037 words ( 7 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 3

Page 1 of 7

But even in Pope, there is an intense sense of Eloisa's self-dramatization, as she uses herself as a potent warning to others, in a way that oversteps the conventions that she is merely talking to her former lover:

When this rebellious heart shall beat no more;

If ever chance two wand'ring lovers brings

To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs,

O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads,

And drink the falling tears each other sheds;

Then sadly say, with mutual pity mov'd,

"Oh may we never love as these have lov'd!"

Eloisa wishes to account for the gap between her unruly inner life and a static monastic life that she professes in order to help herself and others 'do good and avoid evil, for the love of God, requirements that entail an ongoing interior struggle with one's motives, memories and desires' (Hotz 2001:205). Hers is a morality tale in its own way, a confession and a moral instruction of what not to do (Hotz 2001:1). Unlike Fantomina, Eloisa's morality tale is self-generated, apparently, and lacks the guiding sense of a moralizing, authorial voice. But even in her own words, Eloisa 'authors' a kind of envisioned public place of worship, repentance, and homage to God that transcends the material she worshipped with Abelard.

Perhaps the main contrast between these two, equally self-dramatizing heroines and authors is that the love of Pope's Abelard and Eloisa is eternal, unlike the love of Fantomina.

Stuck Writing Your "Public Sexual Female Self --" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Public Sexual Female Self -- Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

"[Beauplaisir] varied not so much from his Sex as to be able to prolong Desire, to any great Length after Possession: The rifled Charms of Fantomina soon lost their Poinancy, and grew tastless and insipid; and when the Season of the Year inviting the Company to the Bath, she offer'd to accompany him, he made an Excuse to go without her (Hayward 268). The love men feel for Fantomina is transient, and her love cannot endure confinement behind convent walls, rather her confinement ends the story. Eventually learning she was "in a Condition," Fantomina is sent "to a Monastery in France...And thus ended an Intreague, which, considering the Time it lasted, was as full of Variety as any, perhaps, that many Ages has produced" (Hayward 292). Fantomina is hidden away from the public realm of desire utterly, the ultimate punishment for someone who allowed herself to be corrupted by desire. But Eloisa, too, in her convent lives on, and continues to reflect upon her errors, hidden from the world that corrupted her innocence, and still offering herself as an example of the dangers of love and the failure to obey the correct laws of society rather than her private whims of desire.

Works.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Public Sexual Female Self --" (2007, April 24) Retrieved May 6, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/public-sexual-female-self-38278

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Public Sexual Female Self --" 24 April 2007. Web.6 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/public-sexual-female-self-38278>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Public Sexual Female Self --", 24 April 2007, Accessed.6 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/public-sexual-female-self-38278
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example