Sexuality and Religion in Literature

Sexuality and religion are to things that sometimes do not go well together, like peanut butter and onions. It is a contrast of what feels good and what feels right. As the Catholic church says, “If it feels good, stop it.” Both sexuality and religion are dominant themes in Madame Bovary by Flaubert and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by Joyce. It is also the theme of contrast between sexuality and religion that dominates, more in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man than Madame Bovary. It is very apparent in both novels that you won’t get one with out the other. One theme provides as a nexus for the other. For many, sexuality is a component towards achieving fullness in life. In my many high schools all over the world a kid is not truly a man or “cool enough” until he loses his virginity. It is this insatiable need to have companionship that drives many people towards a life of constant searching. They search for that loved one, such as we see in Charles and in Emma. But some do end up like Emma Bovary, looking death straight in the eyes, unfulfilled by love or partnership. And some end up like Stephen, never to love because they have pushed other away completely. This push for sensual completeness starts at birth, with our need to be held by our mothers, such a need that should never be denied to any living soul. But religion has its own way of putting stop to sensuality. It creates guilt in the minds of young children to prevent them from ever touching another human being, to be completely devoid of the sensual touch of another. This theme holds true in James Joyce’s “A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man”. In James Joyce’s novel “A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” delves deep into the life of young boy, Stephen Dedalus, who, by all accounts, is an extremely pious young man with a strong devotion to God and the beliefs of the Catholic faith. What Stephen goes through is something that many young people go through at some stage in their lives.

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