Sexuality

One of the reasons why I love reading The Monk is because of all the explicit language and activities described within it; I just give Matthew Lewis so much credit for discussing the previously "undiscussed" and talking about the absolute taboo topic of his time. While this book was seen as a disgrace and "dirty" in many eyes, I see it as refreshing, yet still grotesquely twisted.

Obviously, there are always people who are completely against the Catholic church, and there are people who are eternally devoted to it; Matthew Lewis, in an odd way, I think, is somewhere in between. He obviously disses the role of priests, as we see with his depiction of Ambrosio, himself, as he gives himself seemingly too easily to the sexual desires of much younger Matilda. Brilliantly, Lewis sets Ambrosio almost in the same position as a 7-year-old boy, not ever seeing a naked part of a woman, but being full aware that it exists under those clothes. He becomes easily emotionally charged, and is incredibly, and strangely, naive in a situation like this, with blatant sexuality being exposed right before his eyes.

Especially when he speaks to and about the painting he owns of the Virgin Mary, we as readers are called to question his true intentions. Is he being overtly faithful and devout? Or is he pushing those lines too far, and infringing upon lust and desire? Here is where Lewis, in my opinion, does his finest work, as he blends those lines so thinly, that we as readers are called to make distinctions and conclusions for ourselves.