Heinrich Von Kleist's The Marquise Of O

The Marquise of O- by Heinrich von Kleist is a story chock-full of secrets and unsaid ideas, such as the ambiguity of details regarding Giulietta’s possible rape. If you don’t read every word closely, something major will slip your notice. This is exactly what happened to me, specifically when Giulietta is talking to her midwife, who she has called in to hopefully deny her illegitimate pregnancy. The Marquise, who is discussing unwitting conception with the midwife, briefly states that she “conceived knowingly” (Kleist 91). This was surprising after a second reading, as Kleist portrayed her as a rape survivor with no memory of the ordeal. An earlier mistake of either skipping over this wording or assuming that she was lying in case the midwife …show more content…
This scene was particularly revolting, but it suggests that the Commandant may have been her child’s father, despite the Count’s supposed admission to impregnating her. At first, it isn’t clear why Kleist would put such a seemingly unnecessary amount of random, explicit detail (when he usually is so elusive in his wording, suggesting sexual assaults in dashes) into this relatively unimportant part. When approaching back to this scene a second time, it became essential to try to overcome the repulsion and understand his purpose in this inclusion of detail. It is important to note that, not only did this go against the tide of his usual brevity of prose, but it was abrupt. One minute, Giulietta’s father was fuming in the other room, having vehemently disowned and nearly shot her. In the next moment they are engaged, to put it mildly. Although it is almost certain that it was the Count she conceived her youngest child with, it would be unwise to ignore this uncharacteristically graphic scene- especially when we know that Giulietta is more aware of her situation than initially