9700, 1819-12-15, LEWIS (Monk)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reveal Lewis's scepticism in The Monk. The Monk critics can fall largely into two groups First group maintain that The Monk is pervaded by Lewis's negative attitude to the new individualistic progressive ideology of the late 18th century, whose emphasis on the importance of individualism, individual emotion, and human instinct poses a threat to the established society based on the traditional authority and rationalism. The other group believe that The Monk advocates the new ideology which presents itself as an alternative to the corrupt and tyrannical authority. The Monk, however, is characterized by Lewis's ambivalent attitude to the new individualistic ideology, which, Lewis believed, though instrumental in dispelling a corrupt authority and superstition, brought about chaos and disorder in the established society. It seems that Lewis hesitated to adopt this new progressive ideology because of his lack of conviction or his scepticism. Lewis's ambivalence deriving from his scepticism manifests itself in the novel. Ambrosio is the victim of the wrong education which represses his natural instinct unnaturally. Owing to this wrong education, he becomes a demon-like figure governed by the insatiable sexual desire, once he yielded to the carnal temptation of Matilda. Lewis's attitude to the noters' scene, the symbolic representation of the French Revolution, is also ambivalent. In this scene, the rioters destroy the abbey and cruelly murder the prioress. Truly, the prioress, a symbol of corrupted authority, should be punished. But, the cruel murder of the prioress and the chaos brought about by the riot have a negative aspect. In short, for Lewis, the rioters' scene, the manifestation of the individualistic ideology in this novel, has a negative aspect as well as a positive one, like that of French Revolution. Lewis's scepticism or ambivalence is extended into his attitude to the gothic itself. The Monk with the motifs of imprisonment, rape, murder, and ghosts, is a typical gothic novel, which is said to represent a revolutionary or conservative voice. In The Monk, however, coexist Lewis's revolutionary and conservative ideas. He seems to approve of the gothic as the literary genre informed by revolutionary ideas, while distrusting the absurdity of its supernatural elements. This is the reason that he introduces gothic elements sometimes playfully and sometimes seriously. In this respect, The Monk is a typical gothic as well as an anti-gothic which mocks gothic devices by parodying them. The way in which Satan murders Ambrosio, the main source of the gothic elements of the novel, is the one in which Lewis disintegrates his gothic novel, The Monk, because in the description of the murder of Ambrosio, Lewis parodies various literary figures including those of the Bible. At this moment, we obviously realize that Lewis made fun of readers, who listen to his gothic story with seriousness. His fun, however, derives from his sceptical or ambivalent attitude to the new ideology, which pervades his novel.