In the readings from The Romance of the Faery Melusine from when Raymondin breaches the confines of Melusine’s Saturday quarters there are implications of sexual impropriety made by Melusine by the symbolism of the objects and environment around her. Even with her motivations for privacy not relating to an extramarital affair, her conduct is coded within the tale of still being a violation to her marital obligations.

Beginning with Raymondin arming himself with “one of the short swords…passed under his belt”, finding this weapon to be inadequate he also brings “a well tempered spike, a round dagger…a way to deal with whoever had ravished his honour” (119). I believe these items to have a phallic connotation as he is a husband who believes his wife is compromising his standing by limiting access to her. His short sword and dagger being the means in which he gains access to her, implies the tools are righteous in their ability to violate her boundary.

In the description of the environment around Melusine there is a plume of trees “..cypresses appeared like the tines of an enormous comb” (122). The comb is a common symbol associated with the Christian depiction of mermaids and as discussed last class of masturbation. Raymondin finally noticing these trees and wondering how they grew so tall as well as his comparison of the comb, implies perhaps a sexual negligence or impotency towards Melusine that he, encouraged by the words of his brother, must remedy. After he sees her in her hybrid form he notices a “thick fine cypress, immobile except almost at the end of it fine points, climbed toward the starry sky. A natural cupola that seemed to break into the mysterious beauty of this extra-terrestrial place” (125).

Having damaged his tools from gaining access to her rooms, the sight of this particular cypress with its organic state having a phallic resemblance may imply that his vitality has returned as now he has discovered his wife’s transgression against her marital obligations. Her violation of implied masturbation as oppose to infidelity does not compromise the legacy of their union, but it does bring into question her devotion to Christian doctrine and her husband being to her the only source of life and pleasure. It is still a violation to him because she has a power that he thinks is exclusively his domain and right. It’s fair to say Raymondin felt threatened by this ability to reserve this time and power for herself, it threatens not only his emotional stability but the societal emphasis on the power of man (male/husband) over women and the terrain they occupy.

When Raymondin wonders where his trust in Melusine had gone his mind goes to “that they were the same and ever one flesh, each becoming the other to form a single being…and this making themselves one, including their sons, their lands…At one with the earth with its trees and flowers, its meadows and woods, its sweet and fruitful soil…without limit…boundaries or edges. At one with the whole orb that God the Father holds…” (121). Raymondin thinks of the terrestrial power he holds, but later he finds his wife in water, a part of the globe he does not consider when musing about the things they have achieved together. As he believes them to be one, he could believe anything done alone to violate her marital vows and compromise his standing. Without this standard of man’s dominance over others and land it calls the system of society into question and could allow for other ways of thinking that do not hold men as supreme.