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Article: COURTING DEATH: NECROPHILIA IN SAMUEL RICHARDSON'S CLARISSA.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in the Novel
- Article date:
- June 22, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 University of North Texas. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Though the psychological parallelism between Lovelace and Clarissa has been previously examined, their analogous sexual identifications have received only brief attention. From Clarissa's threats of suicide and Lovelace's anesthetized rape of her, to her drawn-out death and funeral and Lovelace's desire for her exquisite corpse, Richardson continually points us to the however unpleasant realization that the sexual taboo Clarissa and Lovelace share is death-in-sex. Indeed Clarissa can be seen as Richardson's own courtship of death: the novel is riddled with descriptions and imagery equating desire with death, and is ultimately devoted to painting a protracted portrait of ...