SOURCE: "On the Release from Monkish Fetters: Matthew Lewis Reconsidered," in Dutch Quarterly Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1989, pp. 264-80.

In the following essay, Kauhl examines the motif of transgression, as both a psychological and a political fact in The Monk.

In the Madrid of the Inquisition, "a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway",¹ a young man (Raymond) loves a girl (Agnes) who has been destined for a monastic life from her birth; they experience separation and loss, but in the end they obtain the consent of their families and get married. A second young man, the monk Ambrosio, is led to a radical break with the religious tradition in which he believed; guided by "philosophy" towards his self-realization (which involves the murder of his mother and the rape and murder of his sister Antonia) he finally faces death as his punishment. A third young man (Lorenzo) falls...