Pen As The Marquis De Sade example essay topic

Engorged upon the Crucifix: A Study into the Relation of Religion, Sodomy and its Repercussions Through the life and times of the Marquis de Sade The Marquis de Sade's fictional writing reflects, to a certain extent, the events of his life. From his tormented mind came libertine works of sodomy, bestiality and unnamed other debaucheries. These images of carnality, though, do not come solely from the depths of Sade's imagination, but instead emerge from his personal sexual experiences. The Marquis' novels, plays and other writings, are a way for him to indulge his nymphomaniacal tendencies while he is (as was often so) confined to a jail cell, or asylum. To truly understand the purpose of Sade's writing it is necessary to examine the happenings of his life. In 1740, on the second day of June, the Countess de Sade gave birth to a son bearing the Christian name, Dontatien Alphonse Francois, later to be known, in pen, as the Marquis de Sade.

He would, throughout the rest of his life, refer to himself as Louis Aldon se Dontatien on any legal documents. This name is presumably that which was intended for him but lost in translation by the church. The Marquis's father was not a presence in his life, as he was an ambassador and often away on diplomatic duties. Sade's earliest years were spent at the Conde mansion -- his mother was lady-in-waiting to the Princess de Conde -- as a playmate to Prince Louis Joseph de Bourbon, who was four years his senior.

One day, in 1744, during a game, Sade, although of a lesser age and rank, became infuriated with the Prince's "obstinacies" and beat him until he himself had to be violently removed. This, along with other reasons of necessity, forced the Marquis to vacate the Conde mansion and move to his family's ancestral mansion in Avignon. It was here that he was tutored by his pedagogic uncle, the Abbe de Sade d'Ebreuil. He would become a favorable figure in the eyes of Sade throughout his life.

Sade's secondary education came from a Jesuit institution in Paris by the name of Louis Grande College. It was here, through the many school plays, that the Marquis was exposed to the world of drama and comedy; though, because of his lower school standing he could not take part in the productions. Another aspect of a Jesuit education, which ironically entered into much of the Marquis's writing, was their practice of flogging. This involved the "tanning" of the subject's buttocks by way of striking repeatedly with an object. This seemingly malignant form of corporeal punishment often doubled as pederasty. Although it is undocumented, it is suggested in the Marquis' writing that he was subject to this more then once during his stay at the College.

One passage that points towards this is found in a short ditty the Marquis, "And you, Messieurs Jesuits, / Come one and all, come swiftly -- / Do not delay in sampling my reed pipe". Sadly, the Marquis was never known for his musical talent, so it is clear this "reed pipe" is most likely his skin flute. It might have been this early exposure to anal sex that shaped his libertine aversion to the female vagina, "Your authentic sodomist will always come un erect at the sight of a cunt". This philosophy most likely arises from the destructive nature of the Marquis's ex life.

The female vagina is too closely linked with the creation of life and, for the Marquis, the aim of sex is not procreation, but instead pleasure derived from pain, both physical and psychological. In the Marquis' writing, and in his life, the most elite form of pleasure came through what he considered the ultimate orgasm: death and consequently murder, "there is no better way to know death than to link it with some licentious image. The sight or thought of murder can give rise to a desire for sexual enjoyment". It is through total control of the victim's life that the sodomist / rapist gain pleasure. Sade's first taste of death came when he left the Jesuit College at the age of fourteen and joined the army as sub-lieutenant in the King's own infantry regiment. He entered his first battle at the age of fifteen in 1755.

He led four companies against the British stronghold of Port Mahon and fought valiantly to a victory. His father, failing in his own ventures, sought to live vicariously through his son and pulled all the strings he could to get the Marquis into a more lofty position. Through this Sade became a standard-bearer for an entire Calvary company. It was at this position that the Marquis once again experienced the receiving position of sodomy. The Marquis' father traveled with him from garrison to garrison but even he could not keep the prying lust of the older officers from his still na " ive son. Through documented letters of protest from the Comte de Sade (the Marquis' father) it is clear that his son was a favorite toy of the ranking officers, "Gentlemen, do not seduce this child!

What good would it do you to turn him into a libertine?" His pleas went unheeded, though, and in reports about the young Sade the character trait mentioned most was "his extreme gentleness". If it was the Jesuits that planted the seed of sodomy in the Marquis then it was army that gave it the substance to grow. After the Seven Year War ended the Comte's plans for his son turned towards marriage. He arranged a bride for the Marquis from a very wealthy, yet lower lineage, family.

The Marquis still contained notions of love in his still clothed heart and he told his father that he would consider marrying no other then the one he loved. She arrived in the form of a noblesse named Laure-Victoire de Laur is. He met her in Paris and as their love blossoms he becomes infatuated by her. This love marks the last time that the Marquis can find bliss in fidelity and consensual eroticism.

Unfortunately, the noblesse was not so attached and neglected to meet Sade at an appointed weekend rendezvous, instead meeting with another paramour. In a fit of rage, that will appear frequently throughout the rest of his life, the Marquis writes her an eight page letter that shows the inner turmoil and confusion of his emotions. It cycles from passages of anger, "Liar! Ungrateful wretch! ... Monster, born to make me miserable", to passionate declarations such as, "Oh, my dear beloved!

My divine friend! Heart's sustenance, sole delight of my life, my dear love, where is my despair taking me?" and finally to blackmail, where he claims that she gave him gonorrhea, "The story of the [clap] should convince you to deal gently with me. I admit that I shall not hide it from my rival and that it won't be the only confidence I'll share with him". Thus ends the Marquis' one true and quasi-exemplary love.

Consenting to his father's wishes he marries the arranged wife, Renee-Pelagic de Montreuils, whom he meets the day of the wedding. Although, she is a faithful confidante throughout their life together, the Marquis' does not seek sexual pleasure from her and the only evidence of sex is the children he sires through her. The Marquis instead turns to the concubines of the Paris brothels for the pleasure that drives the rest of his life. Life seems to settle in for the Marquis and to all witnesses he seems to be living a normal, married life. This is, until, he is arrested during a business trip to Paris. He is sentenced and jailed for blasphemy and sexual acts against god.

During a deposition the prostitute in question describes what happened in great detail. He reportedly masturbated into a chalice while referring to God as a "mother-fucker". He then asks her to masturbate with a crucifix while he described to her how he recently copulated with a girl who had two Communion hosts pressed inside her while she screamed, "If thou art God, avenge thyself!" The rest of the night consisted of mainly dominatrix involving various whips, it is important to note, though, that the Marquis never performed any sexual actions on the prostitute. This goes back to his time spent in the Jesuit College. He, by mixing his afflictions with God and his flogging by the prostitute, he revisits his tormented youth with the priests.

His first sensations of sex, being the pederasty of the Jesuits, gave him tumultuous notions of God and pleasure. These afflictions are most evident when he pleasures the girl with the creatively placed Communion wafers. This is a distinct act of revenge; he was anally raped by priests, so he in turn sexually violates the embodiment of Christ. When he is questioned by the authorities, after his arrest, he says in his defense: In the inebriation of pleasure, it is essential to utter powerful or dirty words, and blasphemous ones are particularly serviceable... One must spare nothing; one must adorn these words with the greatest possible luxury of expression; they must scandalize as forcefully as possible; for it is so sweet to scandalize.

The Marquis' is taken to the dungeon of Vincennes under charges of "blasphemy and incitement to sacrilege". Although people of underprivileged rank were often put to death for such charges, The Marquis was only detained for three weeks. This brevity was due in large part to his father's and, moreover, his mother-in-law's connections with the royal court. Along with this mercy, though, came the decry that the Marquis was not to return to Paris. After this the Marquis' life returns to normal and it appears as if his stint in prison had calmed his wild heart.

A year later, though, he is granted permission to enter Paris again on business but is placed under the watchful eye of Inspector Marais. Marais documents all of Sade's doings which include the courtships of many actresses and concubines. All of this is banal for aristocrats and the Marquis goes many years (1764-1772) without trouble with the law. In 1772, during an orgy, Sade feeds too much Spanish-fly-laced-candy to five young whores and they accuse him of poisoning them.

They also accuse him of performing consensual homosexual debaucheries with his man servant Latour while at the same time sodomizing the concubines one at a time. The Marquis and Latour, upon hearing the charges, flee and in their absence are sentenced to multiple executions by the court. These executions were instead performed on effigies, which was common practice when charges were brought against noblemen. Consequently, though, the Marquis lost his citizen's rights for thirty years and all of his belongings were given to his wife. From this point on the Marquis' life is either spent fleeing the law or, even more persistently, in various prisons and asylums.

It is in his extended stay at the infamous Vincennes prison that the Marquis ardently turns to reading and writing literature. The Marquis stays at Vincennes for roughly twelve years were he completes many manuscripts, the most notorious being The 120 Days of Sodomy. It was through his writing that the Marquis' indulged his depraved fantasies and made it through his time in jail. Passages such as they litter all of the Marquis' works, Her back was turned in an extraordinary way, its line sweeping deliciously down to the most artistically and precisely cleft ass Nature has produced in a very long time. Nothing could have been more perfectly round, not very large, but firm, white, dimpled; and when it was opened, what used to peep out but the cleanest, most winsome, most delicate hole.

As the Marquis time in prison lengthened, he sunk further and further into his own depravity. In 1789, it was decided that he should be moved to the Charenton asylum. Asylums were large improvements over what madmen had to endure in the past. Gone were the chains and tortures that the mentally insane were used to. Asylums, by no means exemplary, offered prisoners at least some treatments and personal freedoms.

His first stay at Charenton is brief due to the removal of the lettres de Cachet and within several months he is released from the asylum. Upon his release he begins to secretly have his work published. His work Juliette is both highly successful underground and controversial because of its strong female lead. Juliette is a representation of the women that got away in the Sade's life, the women that he still fantasized about.

Juliette is a cannibalistic man-killer, contemptuous in every way. To the libertine sodomist, this was the perfect woman. The Marquis' life continues on in the trend that seems to have dictated his previous years. He goes on to write many more offensive pamphlets, plays and novels -- three quarters of which are burned upon his death -- while frequenting jails and asylums for the same reasons as before. His life, though, still interests many today. It is an enthralling study into the affects of nature over nurture and a well documented view into what can happen, when a man of great intellect, falls at an early age to the horrors of sodomy.