[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-181516-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-181516-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","stories-of-desire-in-the-monk","Stories of Desire in the Monk","","The article examines how Matthew G. Lewis's gothic novel The Monk binds narrative to erotic desire and treats their entanglement as both a structural principle and a political argument. It traces repeated alignments between desire and storytelling across major love plots and embedded secondary narratives, including poems, historical tales, reminiscences, and prophetic dreams. The analysis connects these narrative mechanics to a defense of individual desire and the right to voice it through speech and action.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/stories-of-desire-in-the-monk/181516/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/stories-of-desire-in-the-monk/181516.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Genevieve","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-09-02",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What central relationship does the article claim between desire and narrative in The Monk?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The article argues that narrative motivates desire, is represented within it, and even functions as desire itself, creating an entangled relationship that shapes both structure and politics.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the novel align desire and narrative at the level of plot?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The three main story lines—Raymond and Agnes, Lorenzo and Antonia, and Ambrosio—seek erotic fulfillment, while numerous embedded secondary stories also revolve around erotic desire.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How is storytelling portrayed as performative or empowering toward desire?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Telling tales can evoke and empower desire; for example, Raymond’s recounting of his history and his reading romances are used to win consent and affection, showing narrative’s seductive 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\nSource:ELH,Vol.57,No.1(Spring,1990),pp.129-150  \nPublished by:The Johns Hopkins University Press  \nStable URL:http://www.istor.org/stable/2873248  \nAccessed:06/07/201111:55  \nYour use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use,available athttp://www jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp.JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides,in part,that unlessyou have obtained prior permission,you may not download an entire issue of ajournal or multiple copies of articles,and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal,non-commercial use.  \nPlease contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work.Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup.  \nEach copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.  \nJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars,researchers,and students discover,use,and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive.We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship.For more information about JSTOR,please contact support@jstor.org.  \n①  \n# STORIES OF DESIRE IN THE MONK\n\nBY WENDY JONES  \n\"Authorship is a mania,to conquer which no reasons are suffi-ciently strong;and you might as easily persuade me not to love,asI persuade you not to write.”¹In this comment to his page The-odore,a budding author as well as man-friday,Raymond,the pro-tagonist of Matthew G.Lewis's gothic thriller The Monk,draws ananalogy between narrative and desire that would be taken up en-thusiastically by critics and theorists nearly two centuries later.Indeed,we now believe that narrative motivates desire,is repre-sented within it,is the precondition for storytelling and is even aform of desire itself:in short,the imbrication of desire and narrativehas assumed an almost ontological status in current theory.2 Yetdespite The Monk's foregrounding of this imbrication,which isevident in specific instances such as Raymond's comment as well asin the intricate narrative structure of the novel as a whole,mostcritics have tended to consider its narrative qualities only brieflyand to discuss The Monk primarily as a social document,an indexof its historical moment.³While my own reading also ends by con-sidering the historical significance of The Monk,I hope to show thatits narrative qualities are inextricable from its political content.Ibegin by discussing The Monk's repeated insistence on the align-ment of narrative and desire,then show how this alignment formsthe basis of its own narrative structure,and finally,suggest thattheme and structure are constitutive of its social/political argument:a defense of the concept of individual desire and of the right toarticulate that desire in both speech and action.⁴  \nI  \nThe Monk aligns desire and narrative most obviously through itscontent,which consists primarily of love stories.The three primarynarratives,those of Raymond and Agnes,of Lorenzo and Antonia,and of Ambrosio,all aim at erotic fulfillment.Both of the youngcouples are in love and want to marry,while the wicked monkAmbrosio experiences several erotic obsessions.These narrativesare repeatedly interrupted by several kinds of secondary narratives:  \nhistorical narratives such as the story of the Bleeding Nun;personalreminiscences such as Leonella's account of Elvira's marriage;verse narratives such as Theodore's two poems;and propheticdreams,visions and prophecies such as the Gypsy's warning toAntonia(which anticipates the ending of the novel).A rough countsuggests that there are no fewer than twenty-three of these minornarratives,nearly all of which are stories of erotic desire.5  \nThrough self-reflexive moments,the text draws attention to thislinking of desire with narrative:it is often allegorize","cbCaikmgsLZNmQhP","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikmgsLZNmQhP","pdf",2084280,23,"English","# Introduction\n## Desire and narrative as a critical problem\n# Narrative Structure and Erotic Fulfillment\n## Primary love narratives\n## Secondary narratives and their erotic roles\n# Self-Reflexive Allegories of Desire\n## Poems, literature, and Eros\n## Performative storytelling and seduction\n# Mirror Episode and Temptation (excerpt)","[{\"question\":\"What central relationship does the article claim between desire and narrative in The Monk?\",\"answer\":\"The article argues that narrative motivates desire, is represented within it, and even functions as desire itself, creating an entangled relationship that shapes both structure and politics.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the novel align desire and narrative at the level of plot?\",\"answer\":\"The three main story lines—Raymond and Agnes, Lorenzo and Antonia, and Ambrosio—seek erotic fulfillment, while numerous embedded secondary stories also revolve around erotic desire.\"},{\"question\":\"How is storytelling portrayed as performative or empowering toward desire?\",\"answer\":\"Telling tales can evoke and empower desire; for example, Raymond’s recounting of his history and his reading romances are used to win consent and affection, showing narrative’s seductive force.\"}]","Stories of Desire in the Monk | PDF",58]