Philosophy in the Bedroom by the Marquis de Sade

Abstract

Philosophy in the Bedroom, by the Marquis de Sade, features characters engaging in violent, debauched sexual scenes as a means to challenge moral and social norms. Sade was a materialist philosopher who saw society as an enemy of human nature and believed in reducing manifestations of the soul or self to nothing. His libertinage philosophy emphasises individual freedom in pursuing pleasure, challenging social and religious norms. Sade provides a critique of power and authority, advocating for a reevaluation of traditional morality and power structures.

Context

Donatien Alphonse François is better known as Marquis de Sade. His writing is reasonably well known through association with the term ‘sadism’. Sade’s books are filled with scenes of extreme violence and debauchery, most often in combination. These narratives have their wellspring in his philosophy: a materialist theory of human nature.

Eighteenth-century materialism was an extension of the seventeenth-century mechanical philosophy that was the hallmark of the scientific revolution. The mechanical philosophy offered a worldview in which matter and the natural laws of motion were supposed to explain all phenomena. The thesis of materialism is that there’s nothing more to human beings than their material properties. We differ from tree trunks and worms only by virtue of the complexity of our inner organisation. The soul is either a myth, or it’s simply a material entity or a material process.

Sade was a materialist with a difference. Other materialists talked of studying, understanding, predicting and controlling human action with a view to improving society. Sade saw society as the enemy of our material nature. He sees our spiritual existence as a myth. Acting in accordance with our true material natures therefore means we should aim to reduce any manifestations of a soul or a self to nothing. Self-abandonment and suffering, are thus the first steps towards ultimate pleasure. He thinks we all have strong desires to harm others, but these desires

are hidden beneath a veneer of commitment to society’s moral order. They may also be a reaction against society’s moral order. Either way, Sade proposes that we submit to these deeper desires.

Sade participated personally in the French Revolution and indeed was one of the prisoners liberated from the Bastille. (When he was freed, he wisely changed his name from the Marquis de Sade to Citizen Sade.) He wrote in favour of the revolution:

"I shall have contributed to the progress of our age and shall be content. We near our goal, but haltingly. I confess that I am disturbed by the presentiment that we are on the eve of failing once again to arrive there. Is it thought that goal will be attained when at last we have been given laws? Abandon the notion, for what should we who have no religion do with laws? We must have a creed, a creed befitting the Republican character, something far removed from ever being able to resume the worship of Rome."

In the final scenes of his book, 120 Days of Sodom, Sade envisages a series of killing machines. Though written in 1785, these descriptions of industrial-scale instruments of death call to mind the guillotine, which became the symbol of the revolution. In conception the guillotine was, of course, an Enlightenment invention. Sade’s machines for killing make death into the most tortured and gory spectacle imaginable, very far from what the men of the Enlightenment would have wished to see in a judicial killing.

Sade was labelled as a counter-revolutionary, and his work was condemned by the political left. He expressed disgust with state-concentrated power and capital punishment in the name of vertu and liberté. In this sense he was a revolutionary outsider and his writings can be viewed as a distorted mirror vision of the Revolution. Philosophy in the Bedroom can be interpreted as a satirical allegory of the French Revolution and the theories that so heavily informed it.

Summary

Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795) is divided into seven dialogues and was originally illustrated by Sade himself.

In the introduction, the Marquis de Sade exhorts his readers to indulge in the various activities in the play. He urges female readers to emulate the character Eugénie and male readers to study cynical Dolmancé and follow his example of selfishness and consideration for nothing but personal enjoyment.

Dolmancé is the most dominant of the characters in the play. He explains to Eugénie that morality, compassion, religion, and modesty are all absurd notions that stand in the way of the sole aim of human existence: pleasure. The work features a great deal of sex as well as libertine philosophies.

Dolmancé and Madame de Saint-Ange start off by giving Eugénie their own brand of sex education, explaining the biological facts and declaring that physical pleasure is a far more important motive for sex than that of reproduction. Both characters explain that she will not be able to feel true pleasure without pain. Then they eagerly get down to the practical lessons, with Le Chevalier, Saint-Ange's younger brother, joining them in the fourth act and swiftly helping to take away Eugénie's virginity.

Eugénie is instructed on the pleasures of various sexual practices and she proves to be a fast learner. As is usually the case in Sade's work, the characters are all bisexual, and sodomy is the preferred activity of all concerned, especially Dolmancé, who prefers male sexual partners and will not have anything other than anal intercourse with females. Madame de Saint-Ange and Chevalier also have sex with one another, and boast of doing so on a regular basis. Their incest — and all manner of other sexual activity and taboos, such as sodomy, adultery and homosexuality — is justified by Dolmancé in a series of energetic arguments that ultimately boil down to if it feels good, do it. (Sodomy was illegal and punishable by death in France at the time the dialogue was written, and Sade himself was convicted of sodomy in 1772.) The corruption of Eugénie is actually at the request of her father, who has sent her to Madame de Saint-Ange for the very purpose of having his daughter stripped of the morality that her virtuous mother taught her.

There is a pamphlet within the fifth dialogue titled "Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans", written by an unnamed revolutionary. It concerns the moral position of the French Republic and it decries the Christian god as a tool of oppressors and calls for the abolition of laws that hamper individual liberties. These include laws regarding slander, theft, incest, rape, murder, and suicide. It also argues that having done away with the monarchy in the French Revolution, the people of France should take the final step towards liberty by abolishing religion too:

"Frenchmen, I repeat it to you: Europe awaits her deliverance from spectre and censer alike. Know well that you cannot possibly liberate her from royal tyranny without at the same time breaking for her the fetters of religious superstition; the shackles of the one are too intimately linked to those of the other; let one of the two survive, and you cannot avoid falling subject to the other you have left intact."

In the final act, Eugénie's mother, Madame de Mistival, arrives to rescue her daughter from her corrupters. Eugénie's father, however, warns his daughter and friends in advance and urges them to punish his wife, whose person and virtue he clearly loathes. Madame de Mistival is horrified to find that not only did her husband arrange for their daughter's corruption but also that Eugénie has already lost any moral standards that she previously possessed, along with any respect or obedience towards her mother. Eugénie refuses to leave, and Madame de Mistival is soon stripped, beaten, whipped and raped, her daughter taking an active part in this brutality and even declaring her wish to kill her mother. Dolmancé eventually calls in a servant who has syphilis to rape Eugénie's mother. Eugénie sews up her vagina and Dolmancé her anus to keep the polluted seed inside, and she is then sent home in tears since she knows that her daughter has been lost to the corrupt libertine mentality of Dolmancé and his accomplices.

Themes

Libertinage

Eugenie comes to Madame de Saint-Ange's boudoir to be educated in the ways of the flesh, but she receives a more philosophical primer from Dolmance. The renowned rake advises her not only on the mechanics of sex and sadomasochism, but also on the tenets that guide the libertine aesthetic.

Libertinage is a fiercely libertarian doctrine, individualism taken to its most extreme conclusion. The goal is self-actualisation through bold and defiant acts. Dolmance explains over the course of several dialogues that the most profound human endeavour one can undertake is sexual gratification. He eschews any notion that love, charity, or friendship can provide similar fulfilment. Citing historical precedent, Dolmance illustrates that any action that increases stimulation is permissible. This includes rape, abuse, incest, and even murder.

Sade challenges the social and religious norms that govern sexuality, advocating complete freedom of expression and exploration of desires. Through raw dialogue and explicit erotic scenes, the author seeks to deconstruct taboos and challenge the limits imposed by society.

In Philosophy in the Bedroom, Sade depicts characters who engage in deviant and violent sexual practices, but who assert their right to unfettered pleasure. For Sade, sexuality reflects our animal and instinctive nature, and he believes that the repression of our sexual urges is the source of many of society's ills. 

Political philosophy

The story takes place in a boudoir, where a group of characters engage in extreme sexual and philosophical experiments. The Marquis de Sade uses these scenes of debauchery to challenge the social and moral norms of his time. Violence is omnipresent in the novel, whether in the form of rape, murder, or torture. These brutal acts are described in graphic detail, which has earned the work its controversial reputation.

Behind the apparent sexual liberation of his dialogue Sade offers a fierce critique of power and authority. By depicting characters engaging in acts of domination and submission, Sade highlights the mechanisms of power that govern our societies. According to him, power is inherent in human nature and there is no point in seeking to repress it. On the contrary, we must embrace it and exercise it consciously. Sade's political philosophy is an invitation to rethink our traditional conceptions of morality and power.

For Sade, political philosophy must be free of all forms of morality and constraint. He advocates total freedom, where each individual would be free to pursue their most perverse desires without any restrictions. This vision, which may seem extreme or even revolting, is a scathing critique of the society of the time, where norms and conventions stifle individuals and prevent them from fully expressing their true nature.

Violence and transgression

Beyond the depiction of violence, the Marquis de Sade seeks to explore the limits of individual freedom and transgression. For him, violence is a means of freeing oneself from the constraints imposed by society and liberating oneself from sexual taboos. He encourages his characters to push the boundaries of their desires and embrace their darkest impulses.

However, this exploration of violence and transgression is not without consequences. The novel's characters find themselves trapped by their own desires and actions. Sade thus warns against the excesses of absolute freedom. Sade uses these elements to question the social and moral norms of his time, while exploring the limits of individual freedom.

Criticism of the bourgeois society

The mechanisms of domination and oppression are at play within the bourgeoisie. In particular the perpetuation of gender inequality, where women are often reduced to sexual objects or trophies for men. Sade highlights the superficiality and vacuity of the values conveyed by this social class, where appearance and social status take precedence over authenticity and true inner wealth.

Sade's extreme scenes encourage questioning of the norms and conventions imposed by the bourgeoisie and advocate freeing ourselves from social constraints, and embracing our own individuality.