Within Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch's novel, Venus in Furs, it is possible to see different aspects of Freud's proposals regarding male and female masochistic fantasies, as well as some consistencies with the masochistic theories of the most modern psychologists. The story's protagonist masculinizes his abuser, Wanda, throughout the novel, and his account includes many instances where you can see the Oedipus complex at work, but the most notable connection between Freud's propositions in "A Child Comes beaten" and Venus in Furs lies in the feminization of Severin. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay One of the main supporters of Freud's theory of masochism lies in the gender reversal of the person in question. Severin's feminization occurs not only through the acquisition of feminine traits, but also through the masculinization of his love interest. From the beginning of their relationship, Severin seems to idolize Wanda and does not take on the typical male role in their relationship. After meeting her for the first time, Severin captures her appearance and describes her in an ethereal sense. “The Goddess asked me my name and told me hers: it was Wanda von Dunajew. And she really was my Venus. (Von Sacher-Masoch, 17) From the beginning we see that he compares Wanda to Venus. Since Venus is a God and Severin is a mere mortal, he immediately places himself in an inferior position. By treating Wanda like a God, Severin rejects the male role that would have been acceptable to Freud. Rather than become her protector and gain the dominant position, Severin submits to Wanda and begs her to take the reins by allowing him to be like a slave to her. Once Wanda accepts Severin's request for slavery, she takes on a new personality each time. participates in his masochistic fantasy. At first, Wanda is sweet, loving, and extremely kind. These qualities are particularly feminine, and coupled with his desire to submit to a man, Freud would have no qualms about his approach to love. However, when she helps Severin act out his violent fantasy, Wanda takes on a much colder and crueler personality to accompany her domineering actions; she even goes so far as to create a contract that gives her total control of all of Severin's shares. According to Stanley J. Coen, a modern psychoanalytic theorist, this is typical of someone who wishes to induce sadomasochistic arousal. “The other person must be controlled within their own subjective world, denying their separateness and autonomy.” (57) Although it is not necessarily the case that all men are cold and cruel, it is clear that, when she becomes the object of Severin's fantasy, she takes on completely unfeminine characteristics, making her seem much more similar to a male figure. In addition to these personality traits, Wanda is also more financially secure than Severin, who is dependent on his father's funds. When he tells her he can't afford to accompany her to Italy to become his slave, Wanda is happy with the situation this puts her in. “'In other words, you have no money, Gregor,' Wanda observed gleefully. . «So much the better. Then you will be completely dependent on me and will truly be my slave.'” (Von Sacher-Masoch, 59-60) In the traditional man-woman relationship, it is the man who earns his bread and the woman who depends on him for monetary needs . By introducing us to a man who has no money of his own and placing him in a relationship with a very rich woman, Von Sacher-Masoch presents us with characters whose gender roles are reversed. While Severin's treatment of Wanda makes her seem much more masculine than feminine, Wanda also contributes tothis vision towards the end of the novel. In Freud's description of the female beating fantasy, he tells us that this is the final phase. The female fantasy involves the self-masculinization of the woman which is induced when she replaces her image with that of a boy being beaten. When she watches the Greek whip Severin, this phase of female fantasy is enacted in real life, as Wanda watches from a couch in the same room. Ultimately, this would suggest that Wanda herself is a masochist, rather than a sadist. Because she doesn't want to play the sadistic role when Severin first asks her to, Wanda actually hurts herself by complying with his demands because she's performing an action she doesn't want to take part in. After the first time Wanda hits Severin, she claims that it awakened something inside her and that she is starting to enjoy the experience. However, this does not so much indicate that she is sadistic, but rather that he has brought out the masculine side of him that has been waiting to emerge. Thus, Wanda ultimately conforms to Freud's masochistic theory, a major component of which is her own masculinization, which, in turn, feminizes Severin due to his attachment to her. Another important part of Freud's theory concerns the relationship between the Oedipus complex and the masochistic personality. Severin idolizes several female figures, including Wanda, and each of these women can be seen as a mother figure who has the ability to discipline the main character. The figure of Venus, the goddess of love, is one of the first women worshiped by Severin. "I secretly wanted to steal... a plaster Venus that was in my father's little library... I was seized by an uncontrollable desire. I stood up and hugged the beautiful cold body and kissed the cold lips. Now I was overcome by terror deep and I ran away. And in my dreams the Goddess stood in front of my bed and threatened me with her arm raised.” (Von Sacher-Masoch, 31) The “uncontrollable desire” Severin refers to indicates a hidden desire for this female figure. .Freud would argue that a boy's desire for his mother is uncontrollable and unconscious, and Severin seems to tap into this unconscious lust and direct it towards the image of Venus. The terror Severin feels after giving in to his inappropriate sexual impulses by kissing the statue suggests that he feels he will be punished for his actions and inspires a sense of guilt that emerges when the Goddess plagues his dreams In these dreams the beautiful woman's raised arm could easily be replaced with the image of a mother scolding her own son. According to the psychologist Otto F. Kernberg this infatuation with the statue of Venus would be highly characteristic of the masochistic personality. attracted to an object that does not respond to their love. Indeed, the unconscious selection of an object that is clearly incapable or reluctant to respond to love characterizes masochistic infatuations and constitutes a "high level" of this type of pathology. (68) The next maternal figures that Severin becomes fond of are his disciplinarian aunt and the maid who worked in his childhood home. Severin states that the young maid was hired by his mother, which immediately indicates a connection of some kind between the two women. Severin had a brief intimate experience with the maid, and although he admits to feeling aroused by the encounter, he denied her seduction as if it were highly inappropriate. This would suggest that because he associated the maid with his mother, he felt it was wrong to give in to his impulses towards her due to their Oedipal nature. Severin's experience with his aunt is very different from his experience with the maid. One night, when his parents are away, Severin's auntshe punishes him for his bad behavior and ignites his masochistic passions. “The switch held by the beautiful, voluptuous woman, who looked like an angry monarch in her fur jacket, first aroused my desire for women, and thereafter my aunt seemed the most attractive woman on God's earth." ( Von Sacher-Masoch, 32) Since his parents were absent at the time of the accident, it could easily be suggested that the aunt was, at the time, a stand-in for Severin's mother. It is also interesting to note that, despite being described as one “voluptuous woman,” it is clear that the aunt is a highly masculinized character. The image of her as an angry monarch would suggest that she had the appearance of an authoritarian ruler, who was typically imagined as a man. This virile image reflects the stage Freud's unconscious of the male fantasy of beatings, where it is the father who beats the child and sexual arousal ensues. Since his masculine appearance would have had the ability to incite Severin's unconscious desires, this explains his belief that his aunt. was the most attractive woman in the world despite the fact that her physical description suggested otherwise. In much the same sense, Severin's view of women is severely tainted by his Oedipal impulses throughout the novel. “…for me everything poetic and demonic has always been concentrated in women.” (von Sacher-Masoch, 36) Freud suggests that a boy's love for his mother is the first real object choice the boy makes in life and explains Severin's idea that women are poetic. On the other hand, he also sees them as demonic because all women remind him of the Oedipal love he feels towards his mother, which distresses him because he feels guilty for experiencing such an attraction. In addition to these early childhood impulses and statements about women, Wanda references Severin's childhood actions and always refers to him as "my son" (von Sacher-Masoch, 46) at several points in the novel. The main character never makes any objections to such statements, demonstrating that he is comfortable enough with this idea to continue to have Wanda refer to him in this way several times. Von Sacher-Masoch's main character experiences several Oedipal impulses towards the mother characteristic of the male child, but he also has an interesting experience that would suggest a certain love for the father. The story of Severin's masochism ends at the point where the Greek takes Wanda's place and beats himself. In “A Child is Beaten,” Freud tells us that there is an unconscious phase of the male beating fantasy in which the boy is beaten by his father. This stage is said to lead to sexual arousal, which would imply an attraction to the father and remains unconscious because it is "too much" for the psyche to handle. Because with the implementation of this fantasy, in which the Greek takes the place of Severin's father, Severin's hidden masochistic phase is brought out from the unconscious. Since this is too much for Severin to handle, he puts an end to the entire fantasy he has been begging Wanda to produce. The father's love is a female Oedipal impulse, so Severin's experience of this love through his masochistic fantasy places him in the typical role of a woman. The entire novel is filled with instances where Severin behaves much more like a woman than a man. On pages nineteen through twenty, Wanda and Severin have one of their first intimate conversations. During this discussion, Wanda speaks at length while Severin listens admiringly and asks only a few questions, always apologizing for interrupting her long speeches. Wanda speaks with authority and Severin is much more calm and allows himself to be dominated by his love interest. In another of their conversations,, 2000.