Venus in Furs: The Female Form

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his desires to have pain inflicted upon himself can be written on in a safe fashion. Although he is a masochist, he still speaks in the bifurcated dialogue of male and female, of pleasure and pain. Ultimately, his desires use his male will to impose their will upon the female form in way that articulates his own needs, rather than the female needs.
The first method Severin deploys to do so is a legalistic one. The uses of the human body as a legalistic text as well as physical text is seen early on in the novel, in the way that the sadistic relationship between Wanda and the protagonist is orchestrated. The two of them enter into a ostensibly contractual relationship of desire. According to the terms of this contract, the female must wear furs as much as possible, hence the title of the novel. This aspect of the relationship becomes not simply a common fetish, of the male asking the female to wear a garment that pleases him. It thus also is rendered into a formal, legal ...

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