Marquis de Sade is a deeply troubling person in history. The disgusting acts committed by this man seem fictional due to the severity and frequency of his acts. I, myself, am not squeamish with violent acts or gory content but this man got pretty close to reaching my limit. Just reading background information about the backstory for this man both intrigued and deeply bothered me. I wanted to know the extent of his actions and as I kept researching his acts, everything got worse and worse as my research progressed.
One act I found extremely unsettling was his encounter with a woman by the name of Rose Keller. De Sade kidnapped the woman and kidnaps her and then threatens to rape her. He then ties her up and begins to flog the woman repeatedly, but to me the most gruesome act came next. De Sade created incisions in her skin and then proceeded to pour candle wax into the incisions.
I believe this man to be deeply troubled and suffering some sort of mental illness. How could a sane man commit acts like he did to Rose Keller and continue living without regret? The times were different, but the statement remains: just how could he possibly do this?
Although his writing is to a high level and has pioneered different schools of thought, I don’t know if I agree with his idolization. His acts are simply too gruesome and are something that should be left in the past. Even if he was advocating for freedom of speech or simply just more civil liberties, his methods were far too extreme. Maybe I am just weird, but I could not stop researching his life and his actions. I wanted to know more and more about the stuff he did. His acts just kept getting worse but I wanted to understand how he thought his acts were warranted in any fashion. Marquis de Sade, what the hell.
