Female Versus Male Homosexuality In Romantic Literature English Literature Essay

Fe potent Versus Male Homosexuality In Romantic Literature English Literature EssayIn Romantic song, there is a distinct disparity in the representation of male and womanly homoeroticism. Male homophile poetry generally constitutes an intricate synthesis of personal feeling and Hellenic- alike homosocial tradition. Female homoerotic portrayals, however, ar typically torn between either a sexually sublimed romantic friend saint or a voyeuristic heterosexual male fantasy pervaded with panic induced by effeminate sexuality. In other words, explicitly sapphic poetry undergoes heterosexualization that dilutes, and in some cases entirely overturns, any liberating potential the poem would otherwise possess. Moreover, while gay male narratives are often privileged within mythologized Hellenistic context and therein become purified and legitimized, sapphic poetry is denied access to a parallel Sapphic tradition. Thus, homosexuals become de-Hellenised in Romantic poetry, alienating the reader from a positive tradition of female homoerotica.In To Lady Eleanor Butler and the Honourable Miss Ponsonby Wordsworth writes of the scandalous and infamous romantic friendship of the Ladies of Llangollen, twain women who ran a carriage from courtly marriage pressures and started a life in concert. The poem is saturated with a sense of close friendship and affinity with turn out being blatantly sexual, and this deters reading the poem as a male fantasy. It seemingly advocates the security of the women, but neglects to portray the reality of the kinship as sexual. This reflects the general view of such relationships in the period female pairs might, if they maintained a faade of genteel respectability, be acclaimed, afterward the fashion of the day, as opinionlised romantic friends(483). Accordingly, the relationship between the Lady Eleanor and Miss Ponsonby is expound primarily through euphemism and code. For example, Wordsworth pull ins the womens house as a Vale of Friendship(10) for the sisters in lamb(13). This conscious use of delicately-worded expression and naming of the vale acts as a potpourri of cipher in the poem it uses a platonic term like friendship in naming the location, suggesting that friendship is what exists there, but then uses a kinship term to describe what the reader familiar with the story knows is not real the women are not, in fact sisters. Therefore, for them to be in love, the reader infers a homogeneous hint that there is nothing sisterly about the love.Wordsworths construction of space in the poem alike profoundly influences its portrayal of the lesbian relationship. By addressing the ladies together in the title and referencing the vale, he creates a well-defined spatial framework in which this poem operates. He connects the space with disposition and therefore keeps it in edge with Romantic tradition In Natures face the expression of repose(4). More than this, however, he illustrates this space as bein g a rare refuge for expression of lesbian passion, such that the ladies love can be al kickoffed to climb . . . above the reach of time(13). Therefore, the poem essentially addresses its own homophobic theme and by designing gum elastic space for the lesbian lifestyle, it also draws attention to the dangerousness of it.In Christabel and Geraldine (lines 236-277 from Christabel), Samuel Taylor Coleridge designs a representation of female homoerotics that is, in many ways, different from Wordsworths. Outwardly, the lines are an empathetic exploration of pain and repressed lesbian desire through the arrangement of Christabel and Geraldine as lovers. However, it is important to note that this reading can never go beyond compassion payable to the omnipresent male presence. This presence, if the reader is to understand it as being Coleridge himself- that is, a heterosexual and very probably homophobic male()- therefore influences the readers analysis of lesbian desire in the poem. Acc ounting for the male persona, two potentially contradictory moods coexist in the poem-heteronormative panic and male voyeuristic fanstasy. The physiologic descriptions of Christabel and Geraldine act to deconstruct, and olibanum objectify, the women by mentioning their body parts Her gentle limbs(stanza 20), her lids(stanza 21), her elbow(stanza 21) and ultimately, her breast(stanza 21). Obviously absent from these bodily descriptions is any mention of female genitalia, a conscious avoidance on Coleridges part he wishes to circumvent the mention of phallic-barren sexual satisfaction of the lesbian couple. Since the poem is ultimately governed by a male persona, lesbian sex cannot exist as a valid coital act a focus on parts of the female anatomy that are traditionally and acceptably sexualized like limbs and breasts without mentioning the genitalia maintains the idea that true sexual intercourse is between a man and a woman.Accompanying this denial of implied true sexual satisfact ion are descriptions of mental and physical anguish. Christabels brain is described as one of weal and woe (stanza 21) while Geraldine describes the mark of her shame, this seal of her sorrow(stanza 23). Depicting lesbians as tormented may serve several(prenominal) purposes. In one sense, Geraldines declaration of shame indicates indicative self-hatred, reflecting the contemporary belief that those who engaged in homosexual activity are constantly aware of their bald perverseness and therefore much likely to continue to self-harm. This punishes lesbian sexual interaction and therefore shields consequent male arousal in the form of pleasing persecution. Furthermore, Geraldine communicates a sense of frustration when she says to ChristabelBut vainly thou warrest,For this is alone inThy power to declare,That in the dim forestThou heardst a low moaning,And foundst a bright lady, surpassingly fairAnd didst bring her home with thee, in love and in charity,To shield her and shelter her from the damp air. (stanza 23)Geraldine expresses contempt that Christabel sought her out merely under the pretenses of platonic assistance, and that lesbian sexual interaction had not been the primary motivation, implying that sexual acts between women are inherently secondary to heterosexual sex. disrespect the apparent conflict of the representation of female homoerotic activity in Wordsworths and Coleridges poems, there are key similarities that provide understanding into Romantic homoeroticism. For example, though lesbian desire in the poems is treated differently, both poets use the natural world as a conceptual framework for their particular representations of female homoerotics. While Wordsworth uses nature as a space in which lesbian desire is safely expressed, Coleridge uses the dim forest to essentially neutralize female sexuality and set Christabels interest of Geraldine explicitly as non-erotic motive. The poems also share the presence of a male presence which, in both cases, biases them, a characteristic that is ironic given the female-centered content. Although the male presence may not explicitly attempt to negatively represent female sexual relationships, female homosexuality becomes disemboldened and portrayed as less genuine as a result.Contrary to female homoeroticism, there is a distinct freedom in the portrayal of male homoerotics in two poems The cornelian and the To Eddleston (from Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, stanzas 95-96). These poems are about Byrons relationship with a choirboy named Eddleston, written years apart, and though the former shares similarities with the sexual vagueness of Wordsworths poem, it, unlike the other, is allowed to be reflected in Greek Love and the Hellenistic tradition. The Cornelian references specifically Greek pederastic tradition. One example of this is the use of the term pledge, a traditional Athenian approach to pederastic relationships. This allows the subject matter an cognize association with ho mosexuality, though to further ensure social acceptability, Byron does not focus explicitly on physical or sexual attraction between the two men. In fact, this early homoerotic poem in Byrons repertoire models a conservative euphemistic approach in the portrayal of its content much like Wordsworths poem. The only real capability of a sexual encounter between the Byron and Eddleston occurs in a safe pastoral setting where lovers can isolate themselves from the evaluate society But he, who seeks the flowers of truth/Must quit the garden for the field. PEDERASTIC POWER STRUCTURE. which is characterized by a disparity in desire,To Eddleston, however, composed years after The Cornelian, is more explicit in its homosexual relationship between Eddleston and Byron. In it, Byron avoids euphemism and sublimation into friendship, such as that which occurs in Wordsworths To lady Eleanor Butler. A comparison of the titles themselves begins to describe the difference in the poems. In The Corneli an, the content centers on a cornelian stone given to Byron by Eddleston around which Byron can employ Hellenistic structure. In To Eddleston, however, Byron focuses explicitly on his personal feelings regarding the death of Eddleston. While the first poem most easily implies friendship, the second poem describes Byrons lover as being now, more than friend. In contrast to a pederastic power structure, the power relationship in To Eddleston is implied to be more balanced between the two men.The most significant difference between the two poems, however, is the degradation of the boundary between homoerotic and the homosocial with differences in imagery. While this poem reflects notions of ideal love between men it also problematises this ideal through its use of sadomasochistic imagery. The 96th stanza is characterised by the use of violent metaphor. Byron describes himself as being pierced by arrows, an image that invokes both notions of romantic love through the tradition of Eros a nd also sadomasochistic penetration by the phallus in the tradition of Saint Sebastian, thus sexualizing the wounded male body. Thus, in what may be viewed as a tame evolution of the Hellenistic tradition represented in The Cornelian, Byron uses To Eddleston to express both the emotional and sexual relationship between he and Eddleston.The starkest difference between Wordsworth and Coleridges lesbian poetry and Byrons male homosexual poetry is that the representation of homoerotics is directly informed by the Byrons personal experience. His poems about male homosexuality are framed by the male presence of an author who is, himself, a character in the poetry, distinguishing these poems from the heterosexual voyeurism explored in the analysis of the lesbian poems. Byron has the freedom to approach homoerotic material with more sensitivity and nuance without objectifying the sexual and emotional attraction between the two lovers. Furthermore, the manner in which female and male depicti ons of homoeroticism explore Greek homosexual tradition is greatly inhibited by male writers of lesbian poetry verses male writers of male homosexual poetry. Byron utilizes a particular version of Greek mythology to portray and legitimize male homosexuality in contrast, the women of Romantic poetry are denied access to Sapphic mythology and thus their Greek homosexual tradition.Though Romantic poetry does address the issue of same-sex love, it approaches male and female homosexuality in contrasting ways. Through the construction of lesbian desire in Coleridge and Wordsworth, the reader is positioned to read the narrative through a decidedly heterosexual discursive framework. Thus, female homoerotics must become either redirect to a romantic and desexualized ideal or degenerate into male voyeurism characterized by ambivalent heterosexual fantasy and phallocentric panic. These disparities in construction are summarized in the way in which the concept of Greek Love is incorporated int o the homosexual narratives of Romantic poetry. Hellenistic homoeroticism it remains important to Byrons justification of homosexual tradition and forms an inviolate element of his construction of homoerotics. Contrastingly, female homoerotics are decontextualized and through the denial of a specifically lesbian tradition, become demonized.