Steven HogueProfessor OliverGothic Literature03/10/2014Gender in the MonkThe social construction of gender can be identified in Matthew Lewis's The Monk, which plays a vital role in the creation and perpetuation of the system supporting the phallocentric power. Lewis destroys the concept that gender is a biological attribute and plays with the idea of ​​“rules” learned from society that the individual must follow to gain recognition and respect with a specific culture. As gender models “progressed” over the years, the social classes that differentiated gender began to merge into a homogeneous notion of normality. Matilda/Rosario's gender-bending showcases the fluidity of gender and the performativity of cultural constructs. Transgender in work upsets the binary order of traditional roles and defines a new space, a third space. The categorization of gender creates a space of normality that requires replication to be sustained. The gender binary is a cultural tool that implements that reproductive power. Gender communication is what creates normality and enforces the use of assigned performances and learned gender roles. The assignment of the gender binary is examined in Judith Butler's Bodies that Matter, where performativity is linked to Derrida's theory of citationality and authenticity/inauthenticity. These concepts and the regard for materiality are what made the obscene nature of the book so subjective to individual reading: “The classical configuration of matter as a place of generation or origin becomes particularly significant when the account of what an object is and means requires recourse to its original principle” (Butler 31). The nature of the matter is that Western thought is presc... middle of paper... these ideologies are deeply rooted. Lewis plays with socially constructed gender ideals and how they are produced and reproduced through cultural interpellation, where deviating from or adhering to sexual categories underwritten by gender can have cultural rewards and punishments. The denial of gender roles in the text helps create gender confusion that expands the dimensions of Ambrosio's sexuality. The relationship between Matilda/Rosario and Ambrosio functions outside of the Master/Slave paradigm, where Ambrosio takes on the roles of femininity: passivity, submission, and flirtatious ignorance, and Matilda takes on the masculine gender role of the authoritative master. These types of roles reveal stasis in gendered sexuality. The character Elivra protects her daughter from certain aspects of life and only allows certain types of knowledge to be achieved