Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

only adds to its value as cultural capital. On the other hand, her analysis of The Monk
offers some insightful counterpoints that are worth considering.
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Napier claims that The Monk fails to deliver the “openness” it promises in its
beginning because both the social criticism and the premise of psychological depth are
designed primarily to feed on the reader’s voyeuristic impulses (115). But rather than
dismissing the value of The Monk based on this view, I would argue that it is specifically
that which makes it an interesting illustration of Bataille’s conceptualization of Eroticism
and transgression as explored in Chapter 2. Her analysis of various scenes, such as the
repeated sexual allusions regarding Antonia’s physique, prompts Napier to draw the
following conclusion:
The deliberate and repeated sensual orientation of The Monk
(whether Lewis is describing scenes of sexuality or of punishment),
combined with incidents in which physical beauty is associated
with a form of excited or confused withdrawal, puts the reader in
the novel’s most crucial moments in the position of a voyeur,
watching curiously … from afar. (117)
In another instance, she draws from the scene where the Monk is watching Antonia
taking a bath through Matilda’s mirror (271) to argue that the narrator does not allow the
reader “to formulate a moral judgment—either about Lewis or perhaps about himself for
his reaction to the event” and that the reader “is encouraged to share [Ambrosio’s]
physiological (non-moral) reaction: her ‘contours’ are called ‘voluptuous’ and the linnet’s
harbour between her breasts adjudged ‘delightful’” (118). Hence, Napier claims that The
Monk draws the reader into a scopophilic contemplation of some of the female characters.
In doing so, she seems to suggest that there is a rapprochement between reader and
narrator, which at times, provokes the reader into assuming Ambrosio’s point of view. In