Sex as a Key to Unlock Repressed Desires in Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and Puig’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman
Both Mishima and Puig, the authors of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and Kiss of the Spiderwoman respectively, portray that sex unlocks desires in characters that have been repressed and obscured by the society. In The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Mishima shows that sex uncovers Fusako’s desires for men, which have been repressed by the societal expectations of respectable conduct. In Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Puig portrays that sex causes Molina, who has lived selflessly all his life due to societal obligations, to express his own desires. In both of the books, the authors argue that sex unlocks characters’ desires, which had been repressed by the society.
In The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Mishima writes that Fusako, for “five years since her husband’s death” (Mishima 27), chose not give an eye to any man, trying to maintain her respectable social status as the lady of the Kuroda household. Mishima shows that Fusako’s desire for men, sensual pleasures, and security have been suppressed by societal restraints. Mishima, by describing her bedroom, provides hint to the traces of femininity and sensual agitation that are disclosed in her private niche, in Fusako. Mishima writes, “femininity trembled in every corner [and] a faint scent lingered in the air” (Mishima 4). He also depicts that “the shocking embrace of sheer nylon [of Fusako’s pair of stockings] and the imitation damask of the couch gave the room an air of agitation” (Mishima 5). Mishima develops such agitating and sexually provocative atmosphere in Fusako’s room to show the extent to which Fusako’s femininity and sexual desires have been suppressed, inverted, and confined to her personal space, where the societal forces fail to invade. And as readers, as accomplices of perversion, squeezed in the chest next to Noboru, we are able to peer into Fusako’s personal space – the deepest areas of her mind – where resonate her suppressed self and desires. The peephole serves as a gateway for us to witness Fusako’s repressed sexual desires that are veiled under her contrived façade of a composed, blasé and respectable mistress of the Kuroda household.
Then Mishima explains how sex reveals these suppressed desires in Fusako. When describing about the sex between Fusako and Ryuji, Mishima writes that at Fusako’s chest, “as if an inner lamp were burning, began a zone of warm, flashy white” (Mishima 7) Mishima uses the imagery of an “inner lamp” to illuminate how Fusako’s sexual desires, which have remained quiescent for five years since her husband’s death, are now ignited to delineate and highlight her “voluptuous shoulders… [and] gracious dignified shoulders” (Mishima 43). Mishima poses the detailed sensual imageries as blatant contrast to her self-possessed, self-conscious lifestyle that she leads during daytime when societal expectations dictate and orchestrate her behaviors. Later, Mishima predicts that Fusako’s “delicate fingertips, stealthy now and reluctant, would quicken into tongues of flame” (Mishima 43). The repeated fire imagery further accentuates Fusako’s fervent desires for sensual pleasures, which violently foam inside her. And the contrast between the delicacy of “fingertips” and vulgarity of “tongues” portrays the extent to which sex transforms her cultured, subdued femininity into violent, crude desires for pleasure. Mishima, through detailed descriptions of the night, shows how sex with Ryuji causes Fusako’s repressed sensual and fervent desires – bottled up inside societal expectations – to pour out and permeate the night with heat and passion.
Secondly, Mishima writes that sex discloses Fusako’s desires to rely on men for security and comfort after years of living as a widow. Mishima describes that after having sex with Ryuji, Fusako “like an insect folding its wings… lower[s] her long lashes” (Mishima 44). Mishima uses such metaphor to describe how Fusako, like an insect folding its wings to perch on something, comes to rest on Ryuji for security and comfort. This shows how sex eventually allows Fusako to uncover and gratify her desires for security and comfort under the care and provision of a man, handing over burdensome responsibilities to Ryuji, who is now the man of the household.
On the other hand, Puig, in Kiss of the Spiderwoman conveys a similar idea about sex. Puig portrays how sex unlocks the desires in Molina that have been repressed by the societal duties. Molina, all his life, has lived selflessly, subjugating his own desires for he had to take care of his sick mother. The footnotes in the book explain to us that such submissive spirit in Molina has actually been wired by society, which has obscured and deluded Molina of his own self-interests. Puig provides footnotes that explain “what has been characteristic of male homosexuals is a submissive spirit … [an attitude which has] proven not to be deliberate, but compulsive, imposed by a slow brainwashing in which heterosexual bourgeois models for conduct participate” (Puig 212). Here, Puig suggests that homosexual men during their adolescence are brainwashed by heterosexual bourgeois models where fathers play the domineering and mothers play the subservient roles. Puig thus suggests that homosexual men, as they come to identify themselves as women of the household, come to adopt this heterosexual bourgeois model as their own “‘bourgeois’ models for homosexual conduct” (Puig 212). Through the use of footnotes, Puig argues that Molina has “incorporate[d] the habits and even the quirks of his progenitors” (Puig 137) – the submissive spirit – that keeps him from expressing his own desires.
Puig further discusses such ideas presented in the footnotes during the conversations between Molina and Valentin. Towards the end of the book, Valentin says to Molina that it doesn’t matter whether he enjoys being a woman but he “shouldn’t feel any the less because of it” (Puig 244) or submit to men. But Molina responds that “but if a man is… my husband, he has to give orders so he will feel right” (Puig 244). Molina believes that “[t]hat’s the natural thing, because that makes him the…man of the house” (Puig 244). Here we can evidently see how Molina has come to be brainwashed by the heterosexual bourgeois model; he believes that a man, the head of the house, has to give orders while a woman has to submit to his orders to make him feel right. Valentin accurately points out that Molina has come to adopt such submissive spirit because he’s been “fed an old wives’ tale by whoever filled [his] head with that nonsense” (Puig 244). Valentin argues that “[n]o, the man of the house and the woman of the house have to be equal with one another” (Puig 244). Puig, by webbing the footnotes with the conversations between Molina and Valentin, demonstrates how Molina’s submissive and selfless spirit has been brainwashed and pieced together by the societal models of behavioral expectations (Puig 213). Puig thereby explains that Molina’s desires have been repressed by societal expectations.
Then Puig shows how Molina comes to realize his own desires after he has sex with Valentin. Having sex allows Molina to identify himself as someone else: “who’s neither a man nor a woman (Puig 235). Molina is no longer defined or categorized by the heterosexual model, which has perpetuated itself over many generations. Now, he is Molina – Molina who has abandoned the submissive spirit and who now expresses his own desires. In fact, Molina tells Valentin that, “the only thing [he] wants is to die” (Puig 236) if it had not been his mother. Molina confesses his frustration in having to think about his mother rather than himself. And this is in fact the first time in the book when Molina actually questions whether it is “fair, that… [he] always ended up with nothing… That [he doesn’t] have anything truly [his own] in life” (Puig 254). He further protests, “my mom has already had a life, and lived it… But when does my life start? When do I strike it lucky, and have something for my own?” (Puig 254). Molina, who had all his life prioritized his mother’s interests over his, now discloses his frustrations and discontentment with his life – or more precisely, the nonexistence of it. He tells Valentin that he doesn’t want to leave, although his mother would be waiting, but stay with Valentin in the prison. Puig shows how sex opens up Molina – whose desires have been repressed by the societal influences and expectations – and causes him to express his own desires and stand up for himself.
Both Mishima and Puig portray how sex unlocks desires that have been repressed by societal expectations. And interestingly, both authors use a form of sex that is considered a taboo or at least reprehensible or shameful when evaluated from the societal norms of that time period and region. In Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Fusako, a widow, has sex with an outside man, Ryuji; such act can be deemed disreputable even more so in her society. In Puig’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Molina, a homosexual man, has sex with Valentin, a man who he comes to fall in love with. As the footnotes throughout the book suggest, homosexuality back at that time and place had just started being recognized and studied and its misconceptions gradually corrected. In this manner, both Puig and Mishima discusses a form of sex that is considered taboo in its respective society, and they describe how the characters, by engaging in such taboo sexual acts, break the taboo and challenge the very societal constraints which have restrained them from being their true selves. Both authors argue that sex liberates the characters from society’s constraints, allowing them to indulge in their own desires. (1542 words)
References
Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. New York: Knopf, 1965. Print.
Puig, Manuel, and Thomas Colchie. Kiss of the Spider Woman. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.
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