Thesis Format
Monograph
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
History
Supervisor
May, Allyson N.
Abstract
At the end of the 19th century, it was believed that men who desired other men were 'despicable, degraded, depraved, vicious, and incapable of humane and generous sentiments'. This dissertation examines how the emotional reactions of and towards sodomites in England between 1691 and 1828 shaped this perception. It considers six sets of paired emotions: lust and disgust, love and hatred, hope and fear, gratitude and anger, joy and sadness, and pride and shame. It examines how changes in law, gender norms, in religious and philosophical thought, the rise of sentimentalism, evangelism, nationalism and the middle-class shaped these emotional reactions. This dissertation is interdisciplinary, with secondary sources from literature, philosophy, religion, gender studies, sociology, law and psychology. The first chapter shows how understandings of desire became tied to nature and reason, and so the ‘unnatural’ became the target of moral disgust. This re-framing of desire also rooted love in marriage and domesticity. This same process was used to justify hatred and violence towards sodomites. The third chapter considers the emotions of hope, fear, gratitude and anger. Fear of sodomites was used to justify anger against them; living in constant fear made hope difficult, leading to sadness and despair; sodomy was also held out as ungrateful to women and to God. Sentimentalism and evangelism led to the conflation of happiness to the presence and influence of women, excluding sodomites. Finally, the shame created and enforced through disgust, hatred and disgrace became internalized by the 19th century.
Summary for Lay Audience
At the end of the 19th century, it was widely believed that men who desired other men were despicable, degraded, depraved, vicious, and incapable of humane and generous sentiments. This dissertation looks at how the emotional reactions of and towards sodomites in England between 1691 and 1828 shaped this perception. It does this by considering six sets of paired emotions: lust and disgust, love and hatred, hope and fear, gratitude and anger, joy and sadness, and pride and shame. It examines how changes in law, gender norms, in religious and philosophical thought, the rise of sentimentalism, evangelism, nationalism and the middle-class shaped these emotional reactions. This dissertation does so through an interdisciplinary framework, with secondary sources from literature, philosophy, religion, gender studies, sociology, law and psychology. The first chapter shows how understandings of desire became tied to understandings of nature and reason, and so some types of lust lost much of the moral disapproval that they once carried, while the ‘unnatural’ became the target of moral disgust. Moral disgust was expressed by associating the act of sodomy and the body of the sodomite with objects of revulsion. Similarly, this reframing of desire also rooted love in marriage and domesticity. This same process was used to justify hatred and violence towards sodomites. The third chapter considers the emotions of hope, fear, gratitude and anger. Fear of sodomites was used to justify anger against them; living in constant fear made hope difficult, leading to sadness and despair; sodomy was also held out as ungrateful to women and to God. Sentimentalism and evangelism led to the conflation of happiness to the domestic, and to the presence and influence of women. This prevented sodomites from ever being truly happy. Melancholy allowed elite sodomites to express, as grief, love for other men that would otherwise be socially impossible. Finally, the shame created and enforced through disgust, hatred and disgrace became internalized by the 19th century. However, literature, history, and famous examples provided a space, increasingly silenced, for some sodomites to have a sense of history and feel pride in themselves.
Recommended Citation
Henry, Frances H.I., "Love, Sex, and the Noose: The Emotions of Sodomy in 18th-Century England" (2019). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6736.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6736
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