"The Book of Margery Kempe" is believed to be one of the first autobiographies by women in English. It is about a middle-class woman called Margery Kempe, who lived between approximately 1373 and 1440, and her journey dedicating her life to God. During her transition into a visionary, she encounters several obstacles as a woman in the Middle Ages. A visionary is a devout person who has religious experiences that may include seeing a holy event or a holy person that cannot be explained scientifically. Although it was written by a male scribe, it offers access to how his gender influenced his religious commitments. What makes this book interesting is how being a woman forces Kempe's sexual, maternal, and domestic aspects to play a crucial role in her transition. One medieval scholar described her autobiography as "a valuable work for anyone interested in the history of gender, subjectivities and English culture". Not only does her gender undermine her credibility as she is subject to accusations of insanity, but it also draws attention to what female mystics found important in their attempts to get closer to God. This essay will argue that the fact that Kempe is a woman it is crucial in her conversion as it draws domestic and sexual aspects into her relationship with God and Jesus, also making her more sensitive to accusations of heresy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sex becomes a persistent feature throughout Kempe's autobiography as she attempts to remove herself from her identity as a mother and wife. His sexual complexity has been emphasized by scholars. Although sexual imagery is often prominent in medieval writings as an expression of spiritual lust, it is generally agreed among critics that Kempe's employment of sex is literal. Sexual qualities are prevalent in her perception of herself as a sacred figure and in her relationships with Christ. Sexuality is important in how Kempe perceives herself as her conversion to a spiritual and devout life began too late for her to be a holy virgin, impeding her desire to exalt herself in the likeness of the Virgin Mary. This sparks an obsession in her to have a chaste marriage with her husband, John. Chastity often takes on an intense role in women's spiritual lives because medieval theologians viewed female sin as inherently corporeal, sexuality from within. This contrasts with the depiction of the male saint's primary sin: external temptation. A concept from Donal Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell's study of the saints summarizes these gender conventions: "the spirit is to the flesh as the male is to the female." This stimulates the need for female devotion to be centered on the body, typically abstinence. This was often achieved with images of food, particularly with fasting to prompt action on one's body. Like many medieval women, Kempe began fasting to repress aspects of her physicality. The symbolic power of being in a state of hunger and rejection was exploited for several reasons, Kempe used it to control sexual desire. The link between eating and sexual domination over one's body is prevalent in the history of the Christian tradition. Being a woman meant that her journey to becoming a holy woman involved punishing and disciplining her flesh to achieve chastity. This has been linked to contemporary eating disorders. This quest for abstinence was stimulated more specifically by his early visionary experience andshe states that "after this period she never had any desire to have sexual intercourse with her husband". That didn't mean chastity came easy to her. When Christ announces to her in a vision that she is pregnant again, she falls into anguish. This revulsion towards sexual intercourse can also be attributed to her numerous pregnancies and the severe mental psychosis she fell into after the birth of her first child. Furthermore, she was unable to attempt to get her husband to abstain from sex, focusing on how her physicality was central to her transition but she was not given ownership over her own body. Kempe was well aware that being a wife was an anomaly in the religious claims she expresses, distancing herself from the holy women in the background of her book. This is particular with the Virgin Mary. As the most honored woman of the Middle Ages, it is not surprising that Kempe sought to imitate her. It focuses on Mary as a divine example of someone who experienced a transformation from physical to spiritual motherhood (a change sought by Kempe). As part of her determination to become chaste, she begins to wear a hair shirt, yet her husband continues to have sex with her. John had a naturalistic empathy towards God's desire saying, "it was good to castrate", but he would only undertake to do so "when God desired it". The importance of chastity can be highlighted when Margery and her husband were talking together and he asked if 'a man with a sword' who 'would cut off my head unless I had sex with you' or would you allow my head to be cut off or would you allow me to have intimacy with you, as in the past?' This scenario proposed by John is markedly a sign of personal humiliation not only because of the deprivation of sex, but because this conversation occurred on Midsummer's Eve 1413, a night that correlated with carefree sexuality in the Middle Ages. To this, Margery responded with “I would rather see you killed than return to the impurity of sexual activity.” This harsh rejection is ironic since, although Margery seeks to strengthen her spousal status in relation to respect, she is paradoxically seeking to distance herself from her domestic role as an earthly wife. Furthermore, this rejection is emphasized when the reader learns that, despite her desire to be chaste, her sexual desire for other men besides her husband remained for many years. She describes how “she was tempted by the sin of lust despite her efforts to avoid it.” Being a woman in the Middle Ages induced an attack on one's apparent erotic tendencies through starvation which often led to illness. Another important sexual aspect of his narrative is his relationships with Christ, which make them decidedly intimate. This was not uncommon: numerous female figures such as Catherine of Siena imagined marrying Christ. His first vision of Christ occurred in his bed, creating a strange sense of intimacy. Kempe also describes erotic descriptions of his relationship with Christ. Typically, however, medieval texts use sexual imagery in a metaphorical position. Kempe does this in a literal way, further complicated by the maternal imagery that she also associates with Christ. While Kempe may not have known female mystics who used images of Christ as a lover or who nursed Christ as an infant, it can be argued that describing Christ as her lover was an inevitable reaction of a sensual, formerly proud woman forced to do so. live a chaste life and suppress his sexual desires. She imagines him as a young man, both as a bridge and husband and as her lover. This intimacy can consolidate or even demonstrate his salvation even if it contains incestuous connotations. Throughout the autobiography he sees the image of Christeven in the faces of many handsome men, to the point that it hurts to look at them. Ultimately, it appears that Margery used Jesus as a multi-substitute for family relationships that she found unsatisfactory. What distinguishes Kempe from other female mystics is that they lack physical experience. This means that she is imagining an erotic relationship with Christ based on her relationship with her husband rather than on things she has heard. This relationship with Christ may not just be a replica of her marriage to John, but the representation of an improved marriage. When she kisses Christ's mouth, head, or feet, this is not modeled on a marital union she has never experienced, which suggests that she views her relationship with Christ as an alternative to that of her husband. In this way, his closeness to Christ goes beyond what others can achieve. He appears to prefer Christ and from this we can deduce that Kempe refused to respect the distinction between sex and spiritual devotion within medieval manuscripts. Although sex was often seen as negative and spiritual devotion as positive, Kempe manages to connect these binaries and create an overwhelming and uncomfortable relationship with Christ. This can be further evidenced by her supposed status as "God's wife" in the spiritual aspect. Kempe even goes so far as to narrate the wedding ceremony in which «the Father took her by the (ghostly) hand in his soul, before the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Mother of Jesus and all the twelve apostles and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and many others saints and holy virgins said to his soul: "I take you, Margery, to be my bride." Here Kempe extracts the figures that make up his mystical background and extends his private family classifications to the public. While it is difficult to gauge the extent of the reality of these visions, the book indicates that Margery believed in these religious experiences. Therefore, it can be said that in the "Book of Margery Kempe" devotion and sex are intrinsically linked. Despite her relationship with Christ, throughout the book she constantly refers to herself as a "creature." While this can be attributed to anonymity (which is quickly lost as the biographical narrative unfolds), it demonstrates an attempt to separate from one's gender. Her gender and physicality played an inevitable role in her journey to becoming a mystic, but referring to herself as a "creature" may suggest an attempt to demean gender. This implies that Kempe is aware that due to social conventions, her gender must play a vital role in her spiritual journey. However, this has an opposite effect as every direct address identifies her as female, drawing attention to the importance of gender in the Middle Ages. This can be evidenced by the frequent number of times she is asked about her marital status, her husband and who her husband is, denoting the inferiority of women due to their value placed on their husbands or lack thereof. During the Middle Ages and beyond, women did not have an identity separate from their husbands. Womanhood plays an overtly significant role in Margery's transition to mystic, particularly in relation to her sexual activity and erotic desires. Chastity was given much consideration, especially in the context of a holy woman: a construct that Margery strove to achieve. The intrinsic sexual nature of her female body becomes vitally important to demonstrate her closeness and intimacy with Christ. This suggests an intrinsic link between sex and devotion throughout the autobiography which adds its own level of complexity as during the Middle Ages society was seen as inherently negative and earthly. That is.