The Book of Margery Kempe is a story of heartache and extreme religious devotion. Throughout her life, Margery struggles with her relationship to Christ and sexual temptation but always seems to be steered back to her holy path through visions she has of Jesus Christ. Although Margery’s relationship with Christ is very intense and often described in sexual terms, at its core, Margery’s relationship to Christ is delicately sweet and full of devout love. In this essay, I focus on desexualizing the kissing in Books 1.35 and 1.79 of Margery Kempe and explaining how kissing can be seen as an act of innocent love in this story.
Book 1.35
In Book 1.35, Margery’s love for Christ is described as extremely intense as she travels through Rome. It the story, she states that when she saw male babies, she would sob “as though she had seen Christ in his childhood” (449). She writes that if she had her way she “would have taken the children out from the mother’s arms and have kissed them in the place of Christ” (449). Although taking babies from their mothers is insane, it is only in Margery’s imagination that she does this. Margery feels a deep connection to Christ, and her desire to know Christ as he was as a child demonstrates her need to know Christ completely, as Christ knows her. After Margery hears Christ tell her that she may kiss him on “‘[his] mouth, [his] head, [his] feet as sweetly as you will’” he says to her, “‘I ask no more of you but your heart to love what loves you, for my love is ever ready for you’” (451). The scene may be set up in a sexual manner, but in Margery’s head, Christ wants nothing more than her to offer him the love he offers her. Christ granting Margery permission to kiss not just his mouth, but his feet, desexualizes the act of kissing, as kissing someone’s feet can be seen as a sign of deeply felt respect. Whenever Margery’s devotion to Christ feels sexual on the surface, her love is always redirected so sweet acts of devotion.
Book 1.79
In Book 1.79, Margery imagines the scene of Christ’s crucifixion. As Jesse Njus states in their essay Performing the Passion: A study on the nature of medieval acting, Margery “casts herself as a spectator of Christ’s Passion who thereby becomes a participant in the scenes she is witnessing” (Njus 121). Margery watches as Christ “[takes] up his mother in his arms and kiss[es] her full sweetly” (455). The image of a son kissing her mother, especially in the case of Christ and the Virgin Mary, should not be sexualized, and in this case, is not. Margery feels the love Christ has for his mother and the comfort her offers her and wishes the same for herself. She “[falls] down at his feet, praying him to bless her” (455) and expresses her love for him before she must watch him die. In this way, Margery aligns herself with the likes of Mary, framing her relationship with Christ as a father-daughter relationship, like the mother-son relationship Jesus has with Mary. Her love for him is felt as deep and desperate because she cannot and does not want to exist without him. In this way, Margery’s relationship with Christ, however intense and passionate, is justifiably seen through the lens of the crucifixion, which was an intense event full of passion.
Finally, at the end of Margery’s vision of the Passion, she witnesses Judas kissing Jesus. She notices that once Judas kissed Jesus “the Jews laid hands upon him full violently” (456). Judas may have been the one to turn Christ in for silver, however, his kiss to Christ before the crucifixion can be viewed as a sign of devotion and penance since he likely knew he would be punished for showing support to Christ. This scene toward the end of Book 1.79 demonstrates that kissing Jesus was not something that only Margery thought of and is desexualized by the function kissing has as a sign of respect for Christ.
Conclusion
Although the intensity of Margery’s feelings for Christ can be seen as sexual in nature when viewed from surface level, if readers brace themselves with Margery’s lens and attempt to feel what Margery felt, they can sympathize with her and begin to understand the sweet natured love she has for Christ. Once readers give pause to stop thinking about kissing in the sexualized ways we are conditioned to, they can understand the non-sexual functions kissing satisfies such as devotion and respect.
- Kempe, Margery. “The Book of Margery Kempe.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages. 10th ed. Ed. James Simpson. New York: Norton, 2018. 449-456.
- Njus, Jesse. Performing the Passion: A Study on the Nature of Medieval Acting, Northwestern University, Ann Arbor, 2010. ProQuest, https://login.ezproxy-eres.up.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy-eres.up.edu/docview/305212264?accountid=14703.