The Monk by Matthew Lewis takes the heightened anti-Catholicism of his time to heart and uses it to criticize social norms. Lewis addresses the problem of the fetishization of purity that the Catholic Church and society outside the Church place so much emphasis on. Lewis presents the idea that, despite the Church's intentions, this fetishization of purity, which causes dangerous isolation from society, actually leads to depravity, both in the religious and secular world. Although Lewis includes both men and women as examples in this critique, regarding the characters Ambrosio and Antonia, his work echoes arguments made at the time for better education for women. Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, had presented a basis on which proto-feminists could build an argument for women to be educated, instead of remaining innocent and "pure." It seems that Lewis took this to heart, but applied it more generally to society as a whole than his female counterparts. He views this fetishization of innocence and purity as societal flaws brought on by the authority of the Catholic Church within society. The monk criticizes the Catholic Church and the misguided social ideals it promotes by presenting the fetishization of purity and innocence as a blatant cause of the depraved downfall of once-innocent characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe character Ambrosio is one of the main examples of caution in Lewis's work. He is idealized by the Church because of his intense innocence and purity from the sin of the secular world. Lewis writes: "He is now thirty years old, every hour of which has been devoted to study, to total isolation from the world, and to the mortification of the flesh... His knowledge is said to be the deepest, his eloquence the most convincing. Throughout his life, he was never seen to transgress a single rule of his order; We do not discover the slightest stain on his character; and he is said to be so strict an observer of chastity that he does not know in what the difference between man and woman consists” (15). Lewis critiques this idea of ​​purity by echoing John Milton's argument for the moral value of liberal reading. Milton writes: “He who can apprehend and consider vice with all its apparent allurements and pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, is the true Christian traveler. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, without exercise and without breath, which never comes out and sees its adversary, but slips out of the race” (Milton). Like this argument for the value of a real-world test and trial of a person's moral purity, Lewis uses Ambrosio to argue for testing the durability of morality , instead of the glorification of chaste innocence. Ambrosio grew up outside the secular world, never being tempted to sin until he was too old to learn differently. This is ultimately the reason for his fall into sin. Ambrosio himself anticipates this when he says to Rosario: “Man is born for society. However little he is attached to the world, he will never be able to completely forget it, nor bear being totally forgotten by it... No longer supported by the violence of his passions, he feels all the monotony of his way of living. and his heart. becomes prey to Ennui” (Lewis 43). This isolation in which Ambrosio lived to foster the kind of purity the Church wants him to have,causes his heart to become a “prey” of the secular world, instead of being its master. This troubled upbringing of a boy and the destruction that follows is, according to Lewis, the work of the Catholic Church. Lewis introduces us to Ambrosio by first describing his congregation, which behaves more like a performance audience than a religious gathering. He writes: "Do not encourage the idea that the crowds were gathered either out of piety or out of a thirst for information...and in a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, seek true devotion would be a fruitless attempt” (Lewis 7). Notice the coded language of the strong anti-Catholicism that was rampant at the time, namely “where superstition reigns.” Lewis does this to criticize the Catholic Church's treatment of Ambrosio and blame him for his character's downfall. He also includes in these lines the implication that the power of the Catholic Church acts like the power of a despot. This amounts to further blaming the Church for the cause of Ambrosio's fall into sin, as he seems to be saying that their power over him is inevitable and overwhelming. The Church's obsession with Ambrosio's enforced innocence leads the congregation to study the man Ambrosio himself, instead of God or the Bible. Lewis writes, “The only people really willing to hear the preacher were a few obsolete devotees and a half-dozen rival orators, determined to criticize and ridicule the speech” (7). This line presents an argument regarding Ambrosio's purity that mirrors that made about Antonia's. This assumes that the well-known purity and innocence of Ambrosio, whom the Catholic Church holds so highly in its power to lead in the Church, actually makes it more desirable to see him fall. The Speakers do not wish to learn from him, but rather ensure that his "purity" is proven false, because of the pompous importance given to him. Ambrosio's purity attracts not only rival speakers, but also the Devil himself. The Devil cites Ambrosio's innocence, and the exaggerated pride caused by this fetishization of his purity, as what made him so desirable to the Devil, saying, "So I have it in my power!" This model of piety! This being without reproach! This mortal who placed his pun virtues on the level of those of the angels” (337). A very similar argument is made later with regard to Antonia. Antonia is both a cautionary tale of an isolated life of innocent purity and an echoing call for the education of women. Antonia grew up like Ambrosio, innocent and isolated. Lewis writes about this: “She is a young creature,” she said, “who is totally ignorant of the world. She grew up in an old castle in Murcia; with no other Society than that of his Mother, who, God help him! Has no more common sense, good soul, than is enough to bring his soup to his mouth” (11). This ignorance of the world is supposed to make Antonia virtuous, because that is what her parents and aunt want her to be. On the contrary, Lewis says that this is what makes Antonia all the more desirable in the eyes of men and all the more susceptible to falling victim to lust, writing: “She looked around her with a shy look; and every time her eyes accidentally met those of Lorenzo, she hastily threw them on her rosary, her cheek was immediately flooded with redness, and she began to recite her rosary; although her manners evidently showed that she did not know what she was doing” (11). These lines tell us that even though Antonia is ignorant of the sins of the world, she is not protected by them because of this ignorance. We see Antonia delve deeper into lust when she sees Ambrosio: "Antonia, as she looked at him eagerly, felt a throbbing in her bosom :.