Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

affectations; she has a nervous laugh, a premature spinsterishness.She is concerned with art and literature and higherthings. Loud noises shock her. She is a hysteric who swallowsair when she laughs or talks and has palpitations of the heart.John, the dissolute doctor whom she has loved since they wereboth children, diagnoses her as having “ a Doppelganger andthe Doppelganger is badly irritated. ” 10The Doppelganger is thesexuality hidden inside of her. She is marked by it, howeverdeeply it is hidden. But she is also marked, stigmatized, by herpurity, the intensity of her soul, her refusal to be diverted fromit. Each is the same energy to different ends. “ ‘Under the surface,” ’John tells her, “ cyou have a lot of excitement, a great dealmore than any other woman I have met. ’” 11 She is not beingdisingenuous when she says that she wants more than thephysical sex—pedestrian by the standard of her soul— that heis offering: “ Some people bring just their bodies. But there aresome people, there are some women, John— who can bringtheir hearts to it, also—who can bring their souls to it! ” 12 Hechallenges her to show him the soul on a chart of humananatomy: “ It shows what our insides are like, and maybe youcan show me where the beautiful soul is located on the chart. ” 13In the sad ending, he has come around to her way of thinking,as he puts it, “ that something else is in there, an immaterialsomething— as thin as smoke. . . ” 14But Alma has abandonedthe ambitions of her soaring soul; she wants sex with him, anintense connection of physical passion. Denied by him, sheends up wandering late in the nights to the stone angel in thepublic square, taking little white pills and picking up travelingsalesmen. Whether ethereal or promiscuous, she is an outsiderbecause of the intensity and purity of her longing. She wantedabsolute love— by definition, an uncompromising passion—