Incest has long been considered as taboo. Almost every country has restrictions and laws condemning incestuous relationships/marriages. These relationships between siblings, parents and even distant relative are often thought of in a negative light. Yet, despite the social rejection of incestuous relationships nowadays, there was a time when interfamilial relationships were accepted. In this essay, we will explore the subject of incest through two academic disciplines – literature and criminal justice. More specifically, we will examine one scholarly work for each discipline: Family Likeness: Sex, Marriage and Incest from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf by Mary Jean Corbett, which uses examples from literature to explore the topic of incest and …show more content…
Her main evidence are passages from novels such as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre3, George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss4 and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park5 as her evidence. Corbett also refers to other literary works such as speeches, pamphlets and essays written by other literary scholars. In one chapter of the book, Corbett uses Adrian Desmond and James Moore’s essay, Darwin: The Life of a Torments Evolutionist, to explain interbreeding. Although her main evidence is in the discipline of literature, she also uses evidence from other academic subjects. Oftentimes, Corbett takes an analysis from other scholars and explains how their analysis reinforces her theories and ideas. For example, she uses Michael Foucault’s quote, “sexuality is originally, historically bourgeois” to reinforce her belief that class and wealth played a role in incestuous relationships. Corbett also gives us a little bit of historical background and explains the laws regarding incest to help readers understand changing opinions on incest throughout the nineteenth century. Her primary evidence does have limitations. Corbett states that her choice of novels only includes those written by women due to time …show more content…
While Corbett’s purpose was to explore the changes of incest, Dubber’s purpose is to analyze incest through the perspective of law and police. The law questions the legality of incest; police officers only serve to control and monitor incest. Dubber argues that because “incest as a distinct offence appears to be patently incompatible with the basic principle of law as law – autonomy or self government…” (737), incest is a matter of police rather than law. Based on his reasoning, it seems as if his purpose is to also convince people that his argument makes
The idea of “family” is almost entirely socially constructed. From grandparents, to friends, to wives and fiancés, the means by which we decide who is related to us and who is not is decided by the person and their milieu. In Mignon R. Moore’s “Independent Women: Equality in African-American Lesbian Relationships”, Eviatar Zerubavel’s Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity and Community, and Franz Kafka’s The Judgement, this idea is tested. Who do we consider close enough to us to share our most intimate details and how do we choose them? Each piece offers a different view, which is the “right” way for each of the people described, whether broad (as in Zerbavel’s reading) or specific (as in Moore’s reading), but there are also many similarities in the ways family is defined and actualized.
In Anne Orthwood’s Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia, John Pagan sets out to examine the complexities of the legal system on the Eastern Shore in the seventeenth- century. He brings to light the growing differences between the English and Virginia legal systems. Pagan, an early American legal historian at the University of Richmond School of Law, spins a tragic story on the legalities surrounding an instance of out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Indentured servant Anne Orthwood’s brief encounter with a man of higher social standing produced a series of four court cases. Pagan examines each case and persons involved, vividly connecting each case to larger themes of social class, gender, labor, and economic power.
Why would I start with Julia Duckworth Stephen to get to Virginia Woolf? One answer is Virginia’s often quoted statement that "we think back through our mothers if we are women" (Woolf, A Room of One’s Own). Feminism is rooted not just in a response to patriarchy but also in the history of females and their treatment of each other. Part of feminism is a reevaluation of the value of motherhood.
Regina Kunzel is an historian of gender and sexuality in the 20th-century U.S . whose research focuses on the twined histories of difference and normalcy, the regulatory force of carceral institutions, and relationships between expert discourses and the self-representations of historical subjects. Kunzel’s most recent book, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2008), examines the social and sexual world made by prisoners over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and tracks its meaning for the formation of modern sexuality. Criminal Intimacy was awarded the American Historical Association’s John Boswell Prize, the Modern Language Association’s Alan Bray Memorial
Through newspapers articles we can take a glimpse at recorded history from the 18th century and see that rape had been a crime committed by many criminals, and dealt with harshly. Most victims of rape assaults were young women that were “robbed of that which constitutes the fairest part of the female sex- her chastity and peace of mind” (Newgate Calendar, Paragraph 3). John Lennard created a reputation for himself, as a man that was found guilty of raping a young woman by the name of Miss Ann Boss on the 15th of June, 1773. Not long after committing the crime, Lennard’s name appeared in numerous newspapers that were reporting on his accused crime. The newspapers followed him through his trial until after his execution on August 11, 1773. The newspapers used specific words and phrases that made Lennard appear to the public as either a dangerous criminal who has committed a particularly dangerous crime, or one that was grouped with other criminals who may have committed less dangerous or harmful crimes. These newspapers also had a way of appealing to the reader’s emotions in an attempt to teach the reader a valuable lesson from Lennard’s life of crime and execution. Through the newspapers specific word choices and appealing to our emotions and idea’s around life lesson’s, we can analyse how John Lennard is characterized by the public and depicted in the press.
John Ruston Pagan’s book, Anne Orthwood’s Bastard, is split into sections describing the different components of sex and law in early Virginia. Pagan describes these components through the story of Anne Orthwood, John Kendall, and their bastard son, Jasper. Anne Orthwood was born an illegitimate child. There was much shame and disgrace for illegitimate children. Although illegitimacy made Anne’s life especially hard, she also faced the same pressures as other members of her generation. Her generation was dealing with shortages of land and labor; increasing prices, rent, and unemployment rates; and declining wages. These struggles caused many people to emigrate from Britain to the Americas.
In the article, “The Sexual Contract, by Carole Pateman discusses the social contract that affects the legal system and how society treats each
...oiceless: The Insidious Trauma of Father-Daughter Incest in six American Texts.” http://udini.proquest.com/view/the-wound-and-the-voiceless-the-pqid:2332146711/The Other Reality/. N. p. n. d. Web. Feb 17, 2013.
In The Murder of Helen Jewett, Patricia Cohen uses one of the most trivial murders during the 1800’s to illustrate the sexiest society accommodations to the privileged, hypocritical tunneled views toward sexual behavior, and the exploitation of legal codes, use of tabloid journalism, and politics. Taking the fact that woman was made from taking a rib from man was more than biblical knowledge, but incorporated into the male belief that a woman’s place is determined by the man. Helen had the proper rearing a maid servant, but how did she fall so far from grace. Judge Weston properly takes credit for rearing her with the proper strictness and education. Was Helen seduced at an early age and introduced to sexual perversions that were more persuasive that the bible belt life that the Weston’s tried to live? Was Helen simply a woman who knew how to use what she had to get what she wanted? Through personal correspondence, legal documentation, census reports, paintings, and newspapers we are able to make our own determinations. Cohen provides more than enough background and history to allow any one to make their own opinion how the murder of a woman could be turned into a side show at a circus.
There are many instances in Jane Eyre where Charlotte Bronte uses or alludes to other literary works. One work in particular, Samuel Johnson’s fable, Rasselas, has important implications for the novel. Rasselas is the book Helen Burns is reading when Jane first encounters her at Lowood. Bronte did not choose this work at random. She was familiar with Johnson’s works, and she relied on the contemporary Victorian reader’s knowledge of it, as she clearly states the title rather than just alluding to it. A knowledge of Johnson’s famous work is especially important in understanding the relationship between Helen and Jane. Many aspects from Rasselas come out through Helen in the novel. Themes in Rasselas are evident throughout Bronte’s novel, and understanding these similarities gives insight into aspects of the novel, especially in regards to such things as Jane’s quest for permanent happiness.
This essay will explore reasons why females such as Vanessa George turn to the crime of sex offending. Demonstrating my knowledge and understanding of classical criminological theory, exploring biological theories such as penis envy and more contemporary views such as liberation theory within feminism. The essay will then go on to look at the inequalities female sex offenders face within the criminal justice system in comparison with males, using chivalry theory and evil woman theory to explain this.
Tidefors, I., Arvidsson, H., & Ingevaldson, S. (2010). Sibling incest: A literate review and clinical study. Journal of Sexual Agression, 348-358.
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, in London. This year is exactly ten years into Queen Victoria’s sixty-four year reign of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was renowned for its patriarchal Society and definition by class. These two things provide vital background to the novel, as Jane suffers from both. Jane Eyre relates in some ways to Brontë’s own life, as its original title suggest, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”. Charlotte Brontë would have suffered from too, as a relatively poor woman. She would have been treated lowly within the community. In fact, the book itself was published under a pseudonym of Currer Bell, the initials taken from Brontë’s own name, due to the fact that a book published by a woman was seen as inferior, as they were deemed intellectually substandard to men. Emily Brontë, Charlotte’s sister, was also forced to publish her most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, under the nom de plume of Ellis Bell, again taking the initials of her name to form her own alias. The novel is a political touchstone to illustrate the period in which it was written, and also acts as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society.
Incest is not something that happens to “those people over there” the ones across town who don’t wash very often. It happens to all strata of society, at all economic levels, and in all ethnic groups.
Schulman blames legalization of homosexual marriage as the cause for the possible permission of incest. However, this is like saying that if marijuana were to be legalized, it will lead to the acceptance of cocaine. Even when homosexuals do achieve their legal rights, currently only given to heterosexual married couples; it will not give rise to the legalization of incestuous relationships and incestuous marriages. Legalizing gay marriage will not pose any threat to the structure of society.