Sex, Sensuality and Religion in The Book of Margery Kempe Essay

Sex, Sensuality and Religion in The Book of Margery Kempe  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Baron Richard Von Krafft-Ebing, a 19th century German psychiatrist, was quoted as having said, "We find that the sexual instinct, when disappointed and unappeased, frequently seeks and finds a substitute in religion." This may have been the condition of Margery Kempe when she desired to cease all sexual activity with her spouse because of her devotion to God. Instead of performing her duties as a wife, she chose instead to spread her knowledge of God to her community and did so not only in speech, but also in literature. Whatever her motivation for creating such descriptive language, it is evident that her faith in God conquered both her fear of public opinion and the constraints placed upon all women during the period. Living in the 1400s, she steps out of a woman's role and into the territory of a man by living her life publicly, abandoning her position of mother and wife, and recording her life in writing. Fortunately, because she was writing for religious reasons, he r work was both permitted and accepted. In The Book of Margery Kempe, she describes her experiences with brilliant imagery, some of which is sexual, all of which is sensual. By using her own senses to portray her spiritual... ... her faith as a sensual experience, Kempe creates a new way--for women in particular--to reach not just enlightenment but empowerment through worshipping God. If Margery Kempe were alive today, she would be considered eccentric but because of her creative book, she would still make it on Oprah's Book Club list. Works Cited Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24. Kempe,Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. http://athena.english.vt.edu/~jmooney/wwmats/margery.htm (27 Jan. 2000).