Talk:Justine (Sade)
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Thanks, it's looking much better now...my first article. woo!
"Nonetheless, Sade invites us to live virtuously in hope of heavenly reward." But the Maquis de Sade was an Atheist! This line doesn't make sense. (anon 4 June 2005)
- It would be more technically accurate to say that the narrator of the novel says this, but since that narrator is a persona adopted by Sade, I think what it says here is OK. -- Jmabel | Talk 22:24, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)
- Ive never read this book before, but I think it is more appropriate to insert statements with reference to the book to tell the readers of this article how Sade invite people to do so, as it seems contraditctory with what it says in the rest of the article. Tache 14:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
The article states that the book was "written in two weeks on 8 July 1787." That's a bit of a contradiction; could someone clarify/correct this? --LostLeviathan 23:36, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Sade and Samuel Richardson
Certainly, being educated and literarily inclined, we must suppose Sade would have access to Richardson's work. This idea is supported by a report of Sade having referred to Samuel Richardson as 'the outstanding explorer of "the human heart, Nature's veritable labyrinth"' (Seaver and Wainhouse, in the introduction to the 1989 Arena reprint of their 1966 edition). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Brynhilde (talk • contribs) 21 August 2006.
[edit] Unwikified text moved from article
The following was a large chunk of text recently placed in the article by an editor with only one (similar) previous edit. It looks cut and pasted from elsewhere. It doesn't follow any of our style conventions (e.g. how the quotation marks are done; originally—I've cleaned this up—paragraphs were separated by large numbers of tabs). It is totally unwikified. It reads like an essay.
This may be perfectly legitimate content or it may be a copyvio; I'll try to contact the contributor & ask about what is going on. - Jmabel | Talk 05:51, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
JUSTINE – major themes Jean Jacques Pauvert was condemned for publishing four texts of Sade (Les 120 Journies Sodome, La Philosophe dans le boudoir, La Nouvelle Justine and Juliette) alleged to be “contraires aux moeurs” in 1956. The judge declared that Sade constituted a dangerous example which “propose[d] itself as one not to be followed.” Pornographic pamphlets and cartoons circulated in 18th century France portrayed royalty as human and even less than that and destroyed the notion of the King’s ‘body politic’. In Nights of Paris Restif de la Bretonne mentions a bordello in Saint Antoine which the Duke of Orleans, Prince d’ Artois frequently visited. “There took place all the infamies and bestialities described by Sade in Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue.” Sadean pornography dissolves the boundary between the political and the personal and the private and the public. It associates sexual act with violence. Pornography ceases to offer pleasure. The Sadean subject asserts sovereignty and seeks empowerment through the sexual act. The pornographic ritual neither inspires voyeuristic tendencies nor does it guarantee satisfaction. The reader feels disgusted and fatigued as the author subverts all expectations that the reader might have from a pornographic narrative. In the Republican discourse of 18th century France “Justine”, a journalist said in 1799 “is a work as dangerous as the loyalist newspaper Le Necessaire, because if republics are founded upon carnage, they are upheld by morality” and the destruction of the latter always led to the destruction of the former.
In the Preface to The Misfortunes of Virtue(1778) the author declared that ‘bold thoughts’ would cause no shock in a ‘philosophic century’ and the writer who knew all ‘affairs of the heart” had made use of all possible situations and cynical pictures to which “only fools” would take offence. Sade rewrote The Misfortunes of Virtue in a longer version Justine in 1791 while he was in prison. Though circulated as an anonymous work Sade claimed its authorship in a circle of close acquaintances. The introduction to the work written in stylized euphemistic language appears very hypocritical. The narrator mentions the “prosperity of crime” in the opening sentence itself. However he attempts to acquaint Constance (to whom the work is addressed) with the “sweetness of the tears of virtue” while establishing the victory of virtue over vice as the scheme of the novel. The novel as it progresses hardly follows the professed path. It champions libertinage, portrays Nature as a cruel entity, questions faith, religion and God, endorses crime, tears apart all manners and customs and builds up a Utopia of freedom. He revises many of the conventions of the 18th century novel. There is no resolution and no purpose of narrative. The work ends with the eponymous heroin’s death. Justine becomes an anti novel. Sade challenges the Enlightenment fascination with reason. He also questions the two grand edifices of Renaissance culture- Nature and society. In Justine sexuality and textuality combine to create a wealth of meaning which needs to be unearthed.
Justine’s identity is shaped through the language of pornography. Her identity is extremely fragile. She is a ‘whore’ who wades through multiple violations, orgies and her voice is silenced by patriarchy. The male pleasure seekers deprive her of her selfhood with little resistance from her side. Justine takes over from the omniscient narrator as she gives an account of her misfortunes as the victim Therese to Madam de Lorsange. She is at odds with the sexual order of her torturers. Her absolute notions of virtue and vice disintegrate in the Sadean universe which is ruled by the notion of maximization of pleasure and personal interest.
Monsieur du Harpin falsely accuses Justine of robbery when she refuses to give in to his demands. Justine realizes that that a poor miserable girl is not granted the quality of virtue by the society. Hence she becomes a criminal without committing any crime. She faces other charges too including murder(of Countess de Bressac). She therefore acquires dual identities- that of a whore and a criminal. Sade saw the traces of the old feudal order in the new society. Human beings were still defined by property and the Republican idea of equality was a myth. Harpin tells her that poor people, bastards and orphans have no right to live and eat into the resources of the society. Inspite of her noble background Justine is cornered by the society following her parents’ death and her departure from the convent. She is determined to preserve her piety inspite of bodily corruption in order to experience eternal joy. Her faith in a benevolent Providence is tested time and again.The libertine surgeon Roden who offers Justine a job as well as shelter in his own house characterizes virtue as a ‘scheme of conduct’ which varies from place to place, time to time. It has no reality, no constancy, hence it is mutable. Juliette, Justine’s sister who leaves the convent with her makes a few compromises and uses her body to seek entry to society. She becomes rich following a successful marriage, acquires a string of distinguished admirers and enjoys the affection of Monsieur de Corville, a powerful gentleman. She is not called a ‘whore’ or a ‘criminal’ by the society. Her wealth and position protect her from such labels.
When Justine’s rapists revile the body with blasphemous terms like ‘shrine’, ‘temple’, ‘altar’ the woman’s body becomes an unclaimed territory waiting to be conquered holding out the promise of safe refuge. Her body is the terrain on which the drama unfolds. Sade attacks the woman’s body as well as the prevailing notions of virginity and chastity. The leader of the Brigands Coeur de Fer marks the woman’s body as the repository of pleasure. He undermines the family by rejecting the marital bond. He instructs Justine not to deprive men of the pleasure of exploring her body. The portrayal of the homosexual relationship between Count de Bressac and his valet, the presentation of an incestuous relationship between Roden and his daughter Rosalie subvert the notion of heterosexual couple formation and similar bourgeois sexual values. Therese’s rape by crucifixion is a direct attack on Christianity, its rituals and the paraphernalia associated with them.
The French critic Beuve speaks of Sade as a powerful corruptor of literary morals. It is because of him the expression ‘sadism’ came into being. At Merseilles Sade wanted Marianne Lavergue to whip him with a parchment beater with bent pins which he took out of his own pocket. She struck him across the buttocks with a heather broom. His works were quite true to his life. This culminates in the repeated association of violence with the sexual act. The characters derive pleasure out of inflicting pain on others as well as their own selves. She saves Saint Florent from the bandits, he in turn rapes and sodomizes her; Roden experiences sexual ecstasy by abusing children; the Benedictine monks practice violent sexual orgies. Justine herself is a prototype of pure masochism as she repeatedly undergoes frightfully painful physical experiences without much resistance. Tying up, beating, whipping, experimenting with bizarre positions became important tropes used in the sexual act. The revolution made Sade feel that there was no need for caution anymore. So he reveals an orgy of fear in his work.
Evil is a condition, an impulse which becomes a necessity. Here good and evil coexist and human beings are free to pursue either. We receive these impulses from Nature. Nature recurs as a motif in the novel. The anthropomorphic view of Nature is questioned. Equality is the basis of natural law which is disturbed by unequal distribution of wealth. Dubois, a member of the gang of Brigands endorses crime as the only means of usurping power from the rich and restoring the state of equality. Crime and evil are the only weapons available to the poor to survive. The Chief of the Brigands delivers a commentary on society, religion and sexuality in the manner of an 18th century philosopher. He claims that Nature is largely indifferent to man, his actions and his institutions which the natural law. Achievement of personal pleasure compensates for the wrongs inflicted on the multitude. Individual freedom should not be agreed upon by the masses. Sade conceives a society founded on conflict. A society created out of contract takes away individual’s right in the name of greater good. Nature encourages evil, crime in order to restore the state of chaos, freedom. God is ineffectual, powerless. Nature reigns supreme. Sade presents Nature as matter in motion. All men are equal because ultimately each of them will face the same fate. The notion of God being the supreme Creator which is the fundamental premise of every religion is rejected. Even the idea of Christ born of mortal parents claiming to be the saviour of mankind is negated.
Predatory Nature employs man to achieve her end. Murder is justified as natural law by which one species asserts its existence over another. Roden prepares for the murder of his daughter in the name of advancement of medical science.Sade redefines the notions of liberty, equality and freedom and constructs a form of Utopian socialism based on natural law. Justine can be read as a treatise on libertinage developing into an institution of pleasure sustained by a private code of conduct.
Marquis de Sade was involved in both the development of his own philosophies and observing the changing nature of his own country. He exposes the corruption practiced by in the court, church and society in his works. Mercier declared that Paris was full of priests with tonsures who served neither the state nor the church. Juliette calls the Pope an “old ape”(Juliette, chap 4) The cult of the so-called “Satan’s Church” undermined the tenets of Christianity. Satan Phallus, a Sadean figure was an ancient God of instincts who taught women the art of seduction and men the need to satisfy their feeling. Count de Bressac is fascinated with the sexual prowess of women, specially prostitutes who enjoy the pleasure of participating in erotic adventures with multiple partners. These women in the 18th century took all the counterparts of male libertine and were determined to enjoy the shame of their calling. Convents became site for gossip and scandal. Sexual intercourse with Father Confessors was common. In the novel the four Benedictine monks maintain a coterie of women ranging from little girls to middle aged women who carry out elaborate sexual rituals every night. Even the pregnant women are not spared. These orgies are symptomatic of the monks’ insatiable appetite for sex. They admit that they do not believe in God and do not serve Him either. Sexuality in the ‘Saint Mary-in-the-wood’ abbey is time bound. The architecture of the building is reminiscent of the twenty four hour surveillance model devised by Bentham. Here sexual act is transformed into a strict institution. Justine emerges as a critique of society, politics, religion, the critique of an age struggling to deal with the sweeping changes it is forced to face. This culminates in an extreme lack of faith.
As Justine recounts her misfortunes Madam de Lorsange discovers her carefully concealed identity. Ironically both sisters have to let go of their identity when they part ways and they regain their identity once they reconcile. Corville ensures that Justine is freed of all charges. In a fatalistic universe end of suffering is the end of life. She is struck by a thunderbolt. The lightning motif returns with Justine’s death. We never know whether she is suitably rewarded in the other world for her virtue.
Sources:
- Grayson B. Susan, The Heroine’s Split in Sade’s “Justine”, Pacific Coast Philology, Vol.25, No1/2(NOV, 1990).
- Ferguson Frances, Sade and the Pornographic Legacy, Representations, No.36(Autumn, 1991).
- Barthes Roland, Life of Sade, Sade Fourier Loyola,(1976)
- Wilson Colin, The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders, Grafton Books, Great Britain, 1989.
[end moved text]
[edit] Prenom Justine
Anybody know what her surname was? Or was it ever revealled? (Shades of Quincy.) Trekphiler 10:24, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The Plot/Summary is Jumbled Together
Justine encounters various People in the novel who subject her to different acts; and the Plot section groups it all together. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.63.204.7 (talk • contribs) 21 March 2007.
