Literary Rape in Abelard and Heloise

The letters of Abelard and Heloise of the 12th century are famous in Medieval scholarship. The most influential power couple in Europe at one time met with horrendous challenges and confrontations from their peers and from each other. Both incredibly strong-willed and brilliant thinkers, the letters between Abelard and Heloise are a fascinating example of letter-writing in the Middle Ages. Letters are considered a public genre for this period, meaning that letters were never private. Without a responsible postal service, people asked to deliver something in their travels could read anything they were asked to transport.

I recently had to read the letters again for a class at Vass while simultaneously taking another class on Middle English. In this second class the professor, Mark Amodio, emphasized the Medieval association between written text and the female body. This thought has been echoed in other secondary sources on medieval exegesis, and it is common consensus that since the writing stylus is phallic, the textual body that it "penetrates" is feminine. This is one of the main reasons women were not allowed to write publicly and teach in this period. Furthermore, the act of glossing, subjectively interpreting a prewritten text, was a task reserved only for men. Essentially, the feminine body of the text is perused and redefined by the masculine pen, which could be seen as raping, or at least taking advantage of, the vulnerable female body.

With this in mind, reading the letters a second time was revealing. I think I may be exaggerating the relevance of these gender associations in relation to Abelard and Heloise's letters, however, it's at least interesting to read them through this lens. In her first letter after reading Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, Heloise slowly focuses the attention on Abelard's sexuality. First she praises him for his creating the Paraclete (the convent which she leads as abbess), saying, "You alone, after God, are the founder of the place, you alone the builder of this oratory, you alone the architect of this congregation... It is all your creation... Before you, this was a wilderness... Nothing you brought to the task was from the wealth of kings and princes... it was all to be yours, whatever was done here, yours alone." I see this as an abject way of comparing Abelard to God as creator of the garden of Eden, particularly as she goes on to say, "Yes, it is yours, truly yours, this newly planted garden." Of course, gardens are a timeless symbol of fertility, pregnancy, and female sexuality, particularly virginity. We must remember that Heloise has already given birth to Abelard's child Astrolabe. Heloise continues, chastising Abelard for his negligence to his nuns, but also to her: "But leave aside these others for a moment - remember what you owe me."

From there Heloise narrows the focal point even more, by addressing their marital relationship as well as what she believes to be mutual love between them. However, Heloise's concept of love becomes deeply sexual for the period. She laments Abelard's castration at the hands of her relatives (oh yeah... about that) and demands that Abelard gives her some comfort in return for all she's done for him. Furthermore - and here's my favorite from this letter - she says, "I changed my habit along with my heart to show that my body along with my heart belonged only to you." (Habit as in the traditional garb for nuns and monks.)

Whoa! If that's not scandalous in every Medieval sense of the word, I don't know what is. Of course she doesn't let it go, and delivers her famous line, "The name of wife may have the advantages of sanctity and safety, but to me the sweeter name will always be lover or, if your dignity can bear it, concubine or whore." Yes. She went there.

So let's summarize a little bit: Heloise has basically called Abelard out as a mediocre spiritual leader and a failure of a husband, while promoting the value of their entwining sexual relationship, and demanding that he respect their relationship for what she believes it to be. However... this can be difficult for one to do when they've been castrated in their sleep and they realize that these letters are going to be read by the 12th century French social world. Scandal doesn't even begin to cover it. It's no surprise that in his response letter, all Abelard does is gloss her text by providing quotes from Scripture to analyze her claims and thereby discredit them. Essentially, I believe he is textually raping her to silence her and to assert his dominance as a man. We must understand that castration in this period is damning (literally), and such people were considered filthy, effeminate, and almost non-gendered (read the Pardoner's Tale in Chaucer to really look at how this plays out socially). Heloise's aggressive plea through a masculine genre - writing - must have been quite an affront to Abelard.

Clearly his response affected Heloise deeply, as her next letter is even more fiesty: "O, the ungodly savagery of God, if I may say it! The mercilessness of his mercy! etc," and, "Has there been glory like the glory that was mine because of you? Or ruin like the ruin that is mine because of you?" That is by definition a back-handed compliment if I've ever seen one. This letter had to be even more rhetorically provocative in order to stimulate some kind of consenting response from Abelard. Unfortunately though, Heloise quickly learns to be silent about her wishes and their sexual relationship. Abelard cannot sexually provide for her in the way she expects him to, and is suffering from a tremendous failure in confidence. Likewise, Heloise feels utterly trapped by her unhappy lot that she would have never chosen had Abelard remained safe... Marriage counseling was unfortunately not an option.

So what do you all think? Have something to add? Questions, comments, opinions? Leave a comment!