Summary Of Dulcitious By Hrotsvitha

Dulcitious by Hrotsvitha revolves around the concepts of Christianity and sexuality in the middle ages. This review will analyze three articles that tie these concepts together. The first article being evaluated is Sex on the Stage of an Early Medieval Convent. The main argument being expressed deals with Hrotsvitha’s “goals to replace the secular, erotic, topics… and to instruct her audience to pursue a monastic way of life with all their strength, by way of indirect participation as audience, the convent of Gandersheim into a place of chastity and sanctity,” and how her plays rather deviated from these goals, through the use of sexual perversions(Classen 170).The more spiritually virtuous the female characters are, the greater are the sexual
“Christianity demands for the restriction or even avoidance of sexual activity by believers”(Cullum 621) Before the rise of christianity sex was widely accepted whether before or after marriage. Due to the reliance of Christianity, it became more attractive for women to hold onto their virginity or take a vow for widowhood. These standards were expected of women, but in no way applied to men. This is thought to be caused by an “undeveloped state of the field of late medieval masculinity, which focused on the high status of men”(Cullum 621). Men are expected to be sexual beings, and by being non-sexual a man is seen as being not normal. Men are to produce heirs, and this cannot be done without being sexual. At this point in time the words virginity, celibacy, and chastity were directly related to women. This article is strictly about christianity and it’s affects on sexuality in the middle ages, giving historical information to the time
The first article relies more heavily on the use of sexual advances in Dulcitious. The other mentions more of the use of past legends in order to write her plays. Classen finds that Hrotsvitha has a rather interesting fascination with sexuality, shown in Dulcitious’s pots and pans fetish that the women enjoyed watching happen, but this delight was covered by means of only giving attention to the miracle of the situation, rather than the sexual deviation. Rudolph thinks of the author as rather funny and creative with this scene rather than expressing strange sexual fantasies. The third article differs from both by only giving historical background on change in sexuality in the middle ages due to the rise of christianity. The other articles don’t give mention to the male stereotype at the time period. In the play Dulcitius it is clear that the only practicing christians are the three virgins, while the others have not yet