In Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch's novel, Venus in Furs, it is possible to see several aspects of Freud's proposals on male and female masochistic fantasies, as well as certain congruences with masochistic fantasies. theories of more modern psychologists. The story's protagonist masculinizes his attacker, Wanda, throughout the novel and his narrative includes many instances where it is possible to see the Oedipus complex at work, but the most notable connection between the propositions of Freud in “A Child is Beaten” and Venus in Furs lies in the feminization of Séverin. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay One of the main proponents of Freud's theory of masochism lies in the gender inversion of the person in question. Severin's feminization occurs not only in his own acquisition of feminine traits, but also through the masculinization of his love interest. From the beginning of their relationship, Severin seems to idolize Wanda and does not take on the typical male role in their relationship. When first meeting him, Severin observes her appearance and describes it in an ethereal sense. “The Goddess asked me my name and told me hers: she was Wanda von Dunajew. And she was truly my Venus. (Von Sacher-Masoch, 17) From the beginning, we see that he compares Wanda to Venus. As Venus is a God and Severinus a mere mortal, he immediately places himself in an inferior position. By treating Wanda like a God, Séverin rejects the masculine role that would have been acceptable to Freud. Rather than becoming her protector and gaining the dominant position, Severin submits to Wanda and begs her to take the reins by allowing him to be like her slave. Once Wanda accepts Severin's request for slavery, she takes on a new personality each time. she participates in his masochistic fantasy. At first, Wanda is sweet, loving, and extremely kind. These qualities are particularly feminine and, coupled with her desire to submit to a man, Freud would have no qualms about her approach to love. However, when helping Severin fulfill his fantasy of beating, Wanda takes on a much colder and cruel personality to accompany her domineering actions; she even goes so far as to create a contract that gives her total control over all of Severin's actions. According to modern psychoanalytic theorist Stanley J. Coen, this is typical of someone who wishes to provoke sadomasochistic arousal. “The other person must be controlled in their own subjective world, deprived of their separateness and autonomy.” (57) Although this is not to say that all men are cold and cruel, it is clear that when she becomes the object of Severin's fantasy, she acquires characteristics that are completely unfeminine, thus making her look much more like a woman. masculine figure. In addition to these personality traits, Wanda is also more financially secure than Severin, who depends on his father for funds. When he tells her that he cannot afford to accompany her to Italy to become her slave, Wanda is delighted with the position in which this puts her. “'In other words, you have no money, Gregor,' Wanda remarked delightedly. . " So much the better. Then you will depend completely on me and you will truly be my slave.' » (Von Sacher-Masoch, 59-60) In the traditional man-woman relationship, it is the man who earns his living and the woman who depends on him. for monetary needs. By introducing us to a man who has no money of his own and connecting him with a very wealthy woman, Von Sacher-Masoch presents us with characters whose gender roles are reversed. While theSeverin's treatment of Wanda makes her seem much more masculine than feminine, Wanda also contributes to this view towards the end of the novel. In Freud's description of the fantasy of beating a woman, he tells us that the final phase of this fantasy. The female fantasy involves the self-masculinization of the woman which is induced when she substitutes her own image for that of a boy. beaten. When she watches the Greek as he whips Severin, this phase of the female fantasy plays out in real life, while Wanda watches from a couch in the same room. Ultimately, this would suggest that Wanda herself is masochistic rather than sadistic. As she is unwilling to play the sadistic role when Severin first asks her this, Wanda harms herself by complying with his demands because she is performing an action that she does not want to be a part of. defeats Severin, she states that he awakened something in her and she begins to enjoy the experience. However, this doesn't so much mean that she's a sadist, but rather that he brought out the masculine side of her that was waiting to emerge. Therefore, Wanda ultimately conforms to Freud's masochistic theory, a main component of which is her own masculinization, which, in turn, feminizes Severin due to his attachment to her. Another important part of Freud's theory concerns the relationship between the Oedipus complex and the masochistic personality. Severin idolizes several female figures, including Wanda, and each of these women can be seen as a mother figure who has the ability to discipline the main character. The figure of Venus, the goddess of love, is one of the first women worshiped by Severinus. “I was flying secretly... towards a plaster Venus which was in my father's little library... I was seized by an uncontrollable desire. . I stood up and kissed the cold beautiful body and kissed the cold lips. Now I was overcome by a deep terror and I fled. And in my dreams, the Goddess stood before my bed and threatened me with her raised arm. (Von Sacher-Masoch, 31) The “uncontrollable desire” that Severin refers to indicates a hidden desire for this female figure. Freud would say that a boy's desire for his mother is uncontrollable and unconscious, and Severin seems to tap into this unconscious desire and direct it toward the image of Venus. The terror Severin feels after giving in to his inappropriate sexual urges by kissing the statue suggests that he feels he will be punished for his actions and inspires a sense of guilt that emerges as the Goddess torments his dreams. In these dreams, the beautiful woman's raised arm could easily be replaced by the image of a mother scolding her child. According to psychologist Otto F. Kernberg, this craze for the statue of Venus is very characteristic of the masochistic personality. “The difference between falling in love normally and a masochistic model of falling in love lies precisely in the fact that masochistic personalities can be irresistibly attracted to an object that does not respond to their love. In fact, the unconscious selection of an object that is clearly incapable or unwilling to respond to love characterizes masochistic infatuations and constitutes a "high level" of this type of pathology. (68) The next maternal figures to whom Séverin becomes attached are his disciplinarian aunt and the maid who worked in his childhood home. Séverin claims that the young servant was hired by his mother, which immediately signifies some sort of connection between the two women. Severin had a brief, intimate experience with the servant and, although he admitted to feeling aroused by this encounter, he denied her seduction as if it were entirely inappropriate. This suggests that, because heassociated the servant with his mother, he felt bad for giving in to his urges towards her due to their Oedipal nature. Severin's experience with his aunt is very different from the one he has with the servant. One night, while his parents are away, Séverin's aunt punishes him for his bad behavior and ignites his masochistic passions. “The switch held by the beautiful and voluptuous woman, who looked like an angry monarch in her fur jacket, first aroused my desire for a woman, and from that moment on my aunt appeared to me as the most attractive woman on God's earth. (Von Sacher-Masoch, 32) As his parents were absent at the time of this incident, one could easily suggest that the aunt was standing in for Severin's mother at the time. It is also interesting to note that although she is described as a "voluptuous woman", it is clear that the Aunt is a very masculinized character. The image of her as an angry monarch would suggest that she had the appearance of an authoritarian ruler, who would usually be imagined as a man. This virile image reflects the unconscious stage of Freud's fantasy of male violence, where the father is the one who beats the child and sexual arousal follows. Because her masculine appearance would have had the ability to incite Severin's unconscious desires, this explains his belief that his aunt was the most attractive woman in the world despite the fact that her physical description would suggest otherwise. In the same sense, Severin's view of women is seriously tainted by his Oedipal impulses throughout the novel. "...for me, everything that was poetic and demonic was always concentrated in women." (von Sacher-Masoch, 36) Freud suggests that a boy's love for his mother is the first real object choice the boy makes in life, which explains Severin's idea that women are poetic. On the other hand, he also considers them demonic because all women remind him of the Oedipal love he feels towards his mother, which torments him because he feels guilty for feeling such an attraction. In addition to these early childhood impulses and statements about women, Wanda references Severin's childish actions and still calls him "my child" (von Sacher-Masoch, 46) several times throughout the novel. The main character never objects to such statements, showing that he feels comfortable enough with this notion to continue to let Wanda refer to him as such on several occasions. Von Sacher-Masoch's main character experiences several Oedipal urges toward the mother that are characteristic of the male child, but he also has an interesting experience that would suggest a certain love for the father. The story of Severin's masochism ends as the Greek takes over from Wanda and fights himself. In “A Child is Beaten,” Freud tells us that there is an unconscious phase of the male beating fantasy where the boy is beaten by his father. This phase is said to cause sexual arousal, which would imply an attraction to the father and remains unconscious because it is “too much” for the psyche to handle. Because the staging of this fantasy, where the Greek takes the place of Severin's father, brings out Severin's hidden masochistic phase from the unconscious. Because it's too much for Severin, he ends the entire fantasy he's been begging Wanda to produce. The father's love is a female Oedipal drive, which is why Séverin's experience of this love through his masochistic fantasy places him in the typical role of a woman. The entire novel is filled with instances where Severin acts much more like a woman than a man. On pages nineteen to twenty, Wanda and Severin have one of their first intimate conversations. Throughout, 2000.