\u201cI used to think that Christ was wrong, impossibly hard, when he said that to imagine committing adultery was just as bad as doing it\u201d (38).
\nAt this point in the novel, the narrator has just finished having a secret dinner with Louise. This passage belongs to an internal dialogue following the dinner in which the narrator explores their new-found love for Louise.
\nIn this passage, the narrator references Jesus Christ\u2019s judgments about committing adultery. By stating, \u201cI used to think that Christ was wrong\u2026\u201d the narrator recognizes their prior ambivalence to Christ\u2019s moral guidance. The use of the words, \u201cimpossibly hard,\u201d further suggest that it would be practically impossible to commit adultery just by thinking. One would have to be impossibly consumed by lust for Christ\u2019s words to have credibility. Yet, the use of the past tense suggest that they have now changed their mind and agree with what Christ warns. Throughout the novel, the narrator describes the multiple affairs they have had with married women. Yet, they have never arrived to the conclusion that thinking about an affair was just as bad as acting on it. This shows that the narrator\u2019s feelings for Louise constitute something \u201cdifferent.\u201d The narrator has reached the place where they feel so \u201cimpossibly hard\u201d with love and lust for Louise that imagining committing adultery becomes just as bad as doing it.
\nThe specific use of the words \u201ccommitting adultery\u201d reflect the terminology used in the Ten Commandments. Throughout the novel, the narrator seems to go against all of the socially constructed \u201crules\u201d for relationships. Yet, in this passage they agree with one of the most steadfast rules of Christianity; \u201cThou shall not commit adultery.\u201d Although the narrator disobeys the \u201crules\u201d in some contexts, this passage reflects just how internalized sexual stigma can be (Warner 2-3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI used to think that Christ was wrong, impossibly hard, when he said that to imagine committing adultery was just as bad as doing it\u201d (38). At this point in the novel, the narrator has just finished having a secret dinner with Louise. This passage belongs to an internal dialogue following the dinner in which … Continue reading Impossibly Hard: Sexual Stigma and the Ten Commandments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2594,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93618],"tags":[93493],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-blog-post","tag-written-on-the-body"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}