Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - László Dányi: Interpretations of Sexuality in William Styron's Sophie's Choice

Stingo's relationship with Mary Alice, the literate and sensitive girl, is also disappointing to Stingo. In a certain respect she is just the opposite of Leslie. She is from the South and she is prudish in the use of language. Her Baptist upbringing does not allow her to use nasty words or to have a sexual intercourse with somebody, but it allows her to satisfy her partner by hand. This kind of experience seems to be exciting to Stingo first, but later on he finds it boring, because he cannot reach his aim which is the intercourse itself. His frustration is expressed in his dream after the Mary Alice affair. He goes to bed and after hours of sleeplessness he has his first homosexual dream. To him homosexuality is shameful. It is hard for him to confess that he has had a dream like that, but after waking up he thinks of societies of people, like seamen in the Marine Corps, to whom homosexuality is the accepted norm. Sophie is the dominant character in Stingo's sex life. She is the motivating force for Stingo to start his quest, his voyage of discovery into two fields. She speaks to him about her life and reveals the horrors of history, and she is the aim of Stingo's sexual desire. Stingo has his first physically satisfying sexual relationship with her. Sophie and Stingo have some similarities in their lives. Music is life-affirming in their lives. Music forms an integral part in their lives and stories. From the Freudian point of view they both have some unresolved Oedipal ties, because both experienced the death of their opposite sex parent and they both have some guilt about these deaths, and they want some punishment for their obstinacy. They feel guilt over not having pleased the lost parent, and they desperately need the lost parent's love and approval. Their dreams reveal frustrated erotic feelings. They are both involved in eccentric sexual affairs, however, the difference between them is that Sophie experiences most of these, whereas Stingo fantasizes about them. Daniel Ross explores SC in a paper entitled "Sophie's Case, or What Does a Man Want?". The paper was delivered at the Feminism and Psychoanalysis Conference at Illinois State University, May 3, 1986. Ross states that the novel is more a case history than a Bildungsroman. According to him a case history describes the tension between male and female, hero and heroine, teller and tale. Ross compares the relationship between Stingo and Sophie to the famous 51