“The Book of Margery Kempe” is considered one of the first autobiographies by women in English. It is about a middle-class woman called Margery Kempe, who lived between approximately 1373 and 1440, and her journey in dedicating her life to God. Throughout her transition into a visionary, she encounters several obstacles as a woman in the Middle Ages. A visionary is a pious person who has religious experiences that may include seeing a sacred event or a holy person that cannot be explained scientifically. Although it was written by a male scribe, it provides access to how his gender affected his religious commitments. What makes this book interesting is how being a woman forces Kempe's sexual, maternal, and domestic aspects to play a crucial role in her transition. One medieval scholar described her autobiography as "a valuable work for anyone interested in the history of gender, subjectivities and English culture". Not only does her gender undermine her credibility as she is accused of insanity, but it also draws attention to what female mystics found important in their attempts to be close to God. This essay will argue that Kempe's being a woman is fundamental to her conversion because it draws domestic and sexual aspects into her relationship with God and Jesus while making her more susceptible to accusations of heresy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'? Get the original essay Sex becomes a persistent element throughout Kempe's autobiography as she attempts to retreat from her identity as a mother and wife. Its sexual complexity has been highlighted by researchers. Although in medieval writings sexual imagery was often important because it was an expression of spiritual desire, it is generally accepted among critics that Kempe's use of sex is literal. Sexual qualities are predominant in her perception of herself as a holy figure and in her relationships with Christ. Sexuality is important in how Kempe views herself, as her conversion to a spiritual and pious life began too late for her to be a holy virgin, thus preventing her desire. to highlight themselves in the image of the Virgin Mary. This sparks in her an obsession with having a chaste marriage with her husband, John. Chastity often plays an intense role in the spiritual lives of women due to the fact that medieval theologians viewed female sin as inherently bodily, sexuality from within. This contrasts with depictions of the saint's primary masculine sin: external temptation. A concept from Donal Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell's study of the saints summarizes these gender conventions: "spirit is to flesh as man is to woman." This stimulates the demand for body-centered female devotion, usually abstinence. This was often achieved with food imagery, particularly fasting to exact action on one's body. Like many medieval women, Kempe took to fasting to repress certain aspects of her physicality. The symbolic power of being in a state of hunger and denial has been exploited for different reasons, Kempe used it to control sexual desire. The connection between diet and sexual domination over the body is prevalent throughout the history of Christian tradition. Being a woman meant that her journey to becoming a holy woman involved punishing and disciplining her own flesh to achieve chastity. This has been linked to contemporary eating disorders. This quest for abstinence wasmotivated more specifically by her first visionary experience and she dictates that "after this period, she never again wanted to have sexual relations with her husband". That didn't mean chastity came easy to him. When Christ tells her in a vision that she is pregnant again, she falls into anguish. This repulsion towards sexual relations can also be attributed to her several pregnancies and the severe mental psychosis she fell into after the birth of her first child. Additionally, she failed to induce her husband to abstaining from sex, emphasizing how her physicality was fundamental to her transition, but ownership of her own body was not granted to her. Kempe was very aware that being a wife was an anomaly in the religious assertions she expressed, distancing herself from the holy women in the background of her book. It’s special with the Virgin Mary. Being the most honored woman of the Middle Ages, it is not surprising that Kempe sought to emulate her. She focuses on Mary as the divine example of someone who experienced a transformation from physical to spiritual motherhood (a change Kempe sought). As part of her determination to become chaste, she began wearing a hair shirt, but her husband continued to have sex with her. John had a naturalistic empathy for God's desire, saying, "it was good to be chaste," but he only committed to doing so "when God wanted." The importance of chastity can be highlighted when Margery and her husband were talking together and he asked her if 'a man with a sword' who 'would cut off my head unless I slept with you' would you allow that 'do I cut off my head or do you allow me to be intimate with you, like in the past?' This scenario proposed by John is clearly a sign of personal humiliation, not only due to the deprivation of sex, but also because this conversation took place on Midsummer's Eve in 1413, a night which correlated with the carefree sexuality in the Middle Ages. To this, Margery replied: "I would rather see you killed than turn to the impurity of sexual activity again." This harsh rejection is ironic because, even as Margery seeks to build upon her status as a wife in regards, she paradoxically seeks to retreat from her domestic role as an earthly wife. Additionally, this rejection is heightened when the reader learns that despite her desire to be chaste, her sexual desire for men other than her husband remained for many years. She describes how “she was tempted by the sin of lust despite her efforts to avoid it.” Being a woman in the Middle Ages brought an attack on one's apparent erotic tendencies through starvation which often caused illness. Another major sexual aspect of her story concerns her relationships with Christ, making them distinctly intimate. This was not uncommon: many female figures like Catherine of Siena imagined themselves marrying Christ. Her first vision of Christ occurred in her bed, creating a strange feeling of intimacy. Kempe also depicts erotic descriptions of her relationship with Christ. However, medieval texts generally employ sexual imagery in a metaphorical position. Kempe does this in a literal way, further complicated by the maternal imagery she also associates with Christ. Although Kempe may not have been familiar with female mystics who used images of Christ as a lover or nursing Christ as a child, it can be argued that depicting Christ as her lover was an inevitable reaction of a sensual woman, previously proud, who was forced to live a chaste life and suppress her sexual desires. She imagines him as ayoung man, either as a bridge and a groom, or as her lover. This intimacy can cement, even prove, one's salvation even if it contains incestuous connotations. Throughout the autobiography, she also sees the image of Christ in front of many handsome men, to the point that it hurts her to look at them. Ultimately, it appears that Margery used Jesus as a multiple substitute for the family relationships she found unsatisfying. What sets Kempe apart from other female mystics is their lack of physical experience. This means that she imagines an erotic relationship with Christ based on her relationship with her husband rather than on things she has heard. This relationship with Christ may not only be a reproduction of his marriage to John, but also a representation of an improved marriage. When she kisses Christ's mouth, head, or feet, it does not revolve around a marital partnership she has never experienced, suggesting that she is considering her relationship with Christ as an alternative to that of her husband. In this way, his closeness to Christ exceeds what others can achieve. It seems that she prefers Christ and we can infer that Kempe refused to respect the distinction between sex and spiritual devotion in medieval manuscripts. While sex was often seen as negative and spiritual devotion as positive, Kempe manages to bridge these binaries and create an overwhelming and uncomfortable relationship with Christ. This can be further evidenced by her supposed status as a “wife of God” on a spiritual level. Kempe even goes so far as to recount the wedding ceremony during which “the Father took her by the (ghostly) hand into her soul, before the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Mother of Jesus and the twelve apostles and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and many other saints and holy virgins saying to his soul: “I take you, Margery, for my wife.” Here, Kempe extracts the figures that make up his mystical journey and extends his private family classifications to the public. Although it is difficult to assess the extent to which these visions were real, the book indicates that Margery believed in these religious experiences. Therefore, it can be stated that in “The Book of Margery Kempe”, devotion and sex are intrinsically linked. Despite her relationship with Christ, throughout the book she consistently refers to herself as a "creature". While this can be attributed to anonymity (which is quickly lost as the biographical narrative unfolds), it demonstrates an attempt to separate oneself from one's gender. Her gender and physicality played an inevitable role in her journey to becoming a mystic, but calling herself a "creature" may suggest an attempt to downplay the importance of gender. This implies that Kempe is aware that due to social conventions, her gender must play a primary role in her spiritual journey. However, this has a reverse effect since each direct address identifies her as a woman, thus drawing attention to the importance of gender in the Middle Ages. This can be demonstrated by the frequent number of times she is asked questions about her marital status, her husband and who her husband is, which denotes the inferiority of women due to the value they place on their husbands or of their lack of value. In the Middle Ages and beyond, women did not have a separate identity from their husbands. Being a woman obviously plays an important role in Margery's transition into a mystic, particularly with regard to her sexual activity and erotic desires. Chasity was viewed with great esteem, particularly in the context of a holy woman: a construct that Margery strove to achieve. The inherent sexual nature of,.