Anyways, I had a conversation about this with Soren a few weeks ago about this in reference to a different work of literature. What, scientifically speaking, is the difference between a "love potion" of the kind that Christophine brews for Antoinette and a date-rape drug? I mean, Antoinette literally lures Rochester into her room, gets him a little drunk, and then slips him something so that she can take advantage of him sexually in his vulnerable state, and so that he'll forget all about it in the morning. If the ads on the MTD bus I take every morning are true, rape is rape even in the context of marriage. We're not offended--and I hate to be the one doing the gender-flip thing, but bear with me--because it's girl-on-guy rape. It's still mad rapey. If a Jamaican dude wasn't getting any from his Brit wife, and he brewed himself up some Roofies, we'd be appalled. 'S essentially the same thing. Rochester ACTS all tough, but he's probably emotionally scarred for life and stuff.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Christophine's Amazing Ju-Ju Luv Magic
This may be slightly tangential. I recall a class discussion nearer the beginning of the year where Mr. Mitchell gave me the impression that as long as you started with the book and kept it somewhat relevant, you could talk about whatever you wanted on these blog-journals.
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3 comments:
I totally agree with you. I cannot see how this is not rape. No matter the supposed intention, rape is rape, and it is inexcusable. Antoinette manipulates Rochester and forces him to do something he does not want to do. She does it against his will. It is rape.
The intent is not to have sex with his unconscious body it is to genuinely induce the emotion of love. That's what she thinks she's doing and while the potions clearly doesn't do that intention matters to some extent. She's in the wrong and she clearly shouldn't have done it, but her error is more about trying to change him in a way that she shouldn't then trying to rape him.
I think you could definitely call it rape, but that's not Antoinette's intention.
Antoinette knows that Rochester doesn't want to have sex with her, and she tries to chemically force him to do so. He doesn't remember what happens the next morning, so it's entirely possible that he was unconscious (there are certain logistical problems with this theory, of course, but those are, I would assume, chemically circumventable as well).
Regardless, "rape" is absolutely the term to use here, because the issue is one of free will. Alcohol can influence someone, but Christophine's spell or compound actually forces Rochester into the act.
I think that the reluctance to call Antoinette's actions what they are is remarkably sexist; I maintain that if a man drugged a woman, had sex with her, and then insisted afterwards that he did it to "make her love him," he'd be judged much more harshly. We've always been told that rape is never a crime of passion-- it's "always" a violent crime of hate. I don't see why this should only apply if the perpetrator is male.
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