A Psychoanalytic Reading of Ian Fleming's "Doctor No"

Ian Fleming's James Bond is a complex man. He is a highly skilled secret agent who oozes machismo and arrogance. He's also a suave and gentlemanly ladies' man. Bond could be called a real “man's man” most of the time. However, as Fleming's Doctor No begins to unfold, the reader learns that Bond failed his previous mission, almost getting himself killed in the process. M's response to this outcome is to send Bond on a new mission, a “routine investigation and report” in sunny Jamaica (21). M is most likely aware of the true danger of this mission – going toe-to-toe with Doctor No. M sends Bond on this mission to help reignite his masculinity. He even castrates Bond from his beloved Beretta handgun, (a gun M's armorer refers to as a “ladies' gun”) forcing him to end “his fifteen years' marriage to the ugly bit of metal,” and to take on two unfamiliar weapons (20-21). At this point, Bond is certainly emasculated. He heads to Jamaica for a relaxing investigation, but will soon be embroiled in a battle to reconnect with his inner animal, his life drive, his masculinity. It is not until Bond meets the beauty in this tale, Honeychile Rider, that he will be able to do so.

As soon as Bond arrives in Jamaica, a clear coding of animal attributes begins to color the story. These animal codes reflect just how civilized Bond is, and how very foreign the wild is to him. As Bond flies into Jamaica, he describes it as a “big green turtle-backed island” (32). He greets his native sidekick, Quarrel, by shaking his “paw” (34). He quickly notices the horse-drawn carts and donkeys littering the area. Bond is aware that he is out of his element. When he first arrives at his hotel, to better acclimate himself with his new surroundings, Bond strips off his old clothes and showers to wash away the “last dirt of big-city life” (37). Later, while sleeping in his hotel room, Bond awakes to find a centipede crawling up his body. Although he is able to remain still until the centipede crawls onto the pillow, he shakes uncontrollably and vomits after the experience. This reaction exhibits Bond's fear of the wild that he will soon be facing.

Bond's reignition of manhood begins when he meets Honey. This is not surprising if one is familiar with Fleming's works. Bond is a man who thrives on beautiful women and a good martini. Bond's life drive switches on when he feels he has a woman to protect. Honey is that woman in Fleming's Doctor No. When he first sees Honey on the beach at Crab Key, Bond uses both masculine and animal terms to describe her. He says that she has “more powerful muscles than is usual in a woman,” and that her “behind was almost as firm and rounded as a boy's” (79). Bond is immediately excited by this wild, naked woman with a knife at her hip. “Her imperious attitude and her quality of attack were exciting,” he says. “The way she had reached for her knife to defend herself! She was like an animal whose cubs are threatened” (83). Bond also describes her as “a dog that nobody wants to pet” (83). Throughout the novel, he will refer to her as “a principal girl dressed as Man Friday” (84), an “Ugly Duckling” (109), a “poor little bitch” (92), and an “extraordinary Girl Tarzan” (120). Nearly every time Bond takes a moment to look at Honey, to comment on how he views her, he uses either masculine or animal terms in the description. Bond appreciates the animal instincts that are exhibited by this woman. In fact, she will have to help him find his own before he can escape from Crab Key alive.

Honey proves to be an asset on Bond's excursion, as she provides helpful tips on navigating the island and hiding from their pursuers. Honey becomes the wild, animal part of Bond that he needs to survive. Once they are captured and separated by Doctor No, Bond must use his own animal instincts to prevail. He does this by thinking of Honey often – four times in the course of Doctor No's death trial, to be exact. His greatest hope is to come out of the course alive so that he may rescue the girl, who has been taken away and tied up naked on the mountain for crabs to eat. Thinking of Honey reminds Bond of the animal nature that lies within himself. When he first begins the trial, Bond is injured by the wire grille that attacks him like a snake. After he crawls through the ventilation shaft to find heat as his next opponent, he tells himself to think of the girl for strength. Once he makes it through the fiery shaft, his animal instincts have fully risen to the surface:

Bond's lips drew back from his teeth and he snarled into the darkness. It was an animal sound. He had come to the end of his human reactions of pain and adversity. Doctor No had got him cornered. But there were animal reserves of desperation left and, in a strong animal, those reserves are deep (193).

Next, Doctor No uses nature against Bond, (as he is often inclined to do) this time putting thirty giant tarantulas in his way. After stabbing them all to death, Bond once again thinks of Honey for courage. Bond's next challenge is against the giant squid, which seems to molest him at the end of his trial. He is subject to the “hard kiss of the suckers” walking up his thigh and hip (202). After Bond plunges his spear into the squid, it empties its ink sac at him. Despite the fact that Bond has been in and out of consciousness, and is badly burned and bruised, he has managed to use his animal instincts to overcome Doctor No's death trial. Now, in order to finish the job and take out Doctor No, Bond thinks of Honey once more. He then has the strength to wash up and continue.

After burying Doctor No under a pile of guano dust, Bond runs into Honey and learns that she has escaped the crabs safely and is on her way to kill Doctor No herself with a screwdriver. Once he learns that she is fine, his mind reverts to focusing on his own pain: “He ran automatically. He hardly thought of the girl” (215). When Honey explains to Bond that she escaped the crabs by having no fear of them, he says, “I wish to heaven I'd known that. I thought you were being picked to pieces” (221). In fact, without thinking that Honey was in danger, Bond may not have found the life drive that he needed to survive.

Bond redeems himself for his previous failed mission by reigniting his manhood on this one. However, it took a woman to show him what he was missing. The climax of this transformation occurs once Bond and Honey return to Jamaica, as Honey cleans and cares for Bond's battle scars. “Hold tight, my darling. And cry. It's going to hurt,” she tells him (229). As Honey applies the medicine, Bond allows “tears of pain” to “run out of his eyes and down his cheeks without shame” (229). This beautiful scene exhibits Bond's rugged masculinity through the wounds, but also emasculates him by putting Honey in control. Bond concludes his trip by sending M a snarky telegram, telling him to “kindly inform armorer Smith and Wesson ineffective against flame-thrower” (229). The message is his way of reclaiming his masculinity, of telling M that he's back in the game. But while he has reclaimed his life drive, his animal instinct, his masculinity, the tale ends with Honey demanding “slave-time” from Bond. The emasculation of Bond at the end of the novel brings the tale full circle.

Work Cited
Fleming, Ian. Doctor No. New York: Penguin, 1958.

ENG 311 Final Paper Prospectus

For my final paper, I plan to explore Geoffrey Chaucer's “The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale” to determine if his creation of the wife's character ultimately colors him as a misogynist or a feminist. While reading the tale, as a modern woman, I think his voice to be liberating for women of the era, although I know that the story was interpreted as comedic by Chaucer's audience. Chaucer was aware of the historical patriarchal constraints on women, but also of another sort of woman who was emerging thanks the Roman Catholic Church's emphasis on the importance of marriage. Some women were making a career out of wifehood – a vice the Wife of Bath has no qualms bragging about. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a satire, after all. This leads me to believe that Chaucer would have intended for his work to be read as more feminist than misogynist, although he knew that his misogynist audience would read it otherwise.

The voice of the tale is unmistakably masculine, a product of the male author's pen and also of a world where language for women hardly existed. Writing by women was rare in Chaucer's era, and he had to create a language to use for his Wife. It is to be expected that her language should be as masculine as the Miller's, because her words are being constructed by a man. Chaucer's weakness – that he is not female – haunts him as he is touted as a misogynist for his creation of the head-strong Wife of Bath.

Just as the Wife of Bath uses scripture to justify her actions, I, too, plan on referring to a religious text, “Genesis A” of the Anglo-Saxon Junius XI manuscript, to defend my argument. I will focus on the words the devil uses to tempt Eve into coercing Adam into eating from the Tree of Life: “Thou mayest rule the heart of Adam.” Eve ultimately gives in to the devil because she desires to have complete sovereignty over her husband, just as the Wife of Bath desires. Because holy scripture calls for a man to have dominion over his wife, woman is bound to desire equality at some point or another. Chaucer's tale is a satire on the oldest story told: the Fall of Man wrought by woman's weakness. However, woman deserves pity when one realizes she is only weak because she desires to reign in her husband's heart just as he reigns in her's.

With the use of the following journal articles, I plan to analyze “The Wife of Bath's Tale and Prologue” through a societal and cultural lens, discussing the impact of religion and the institution of marriage on Medieval women. I will ultimately argue that Chaucer's piece should be read as a feminist work that was well ahead of it's time. After all, it is not uncommon for the author to be referred to as the father of modern English literature.

Annotated Bibliography

Butler, Sara. “Runaway Wives: Husband Desertion in Medieval England.” Journal of Social History 40.2 (2006): 337-359.
This article details the phenomenon of women marrying – and then deserting – their husbands during Medieval England. Benedictine orders from the church emphasized marriage, and women who had once been in abusive male-dominated relationships were leaving their husbands, taking half of the man's assets with them. This article highlights women like the Wife of Bath who made a career out of marriage, explaining their societal reasons for doing so.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.” Canterbury Tales. New York: Covici Friede Inc., 1934. 311-344.
“The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale” will be the primary focus of my paper. I will use quotations within the text to analyze the character of the Wife, and will aim to prove Chaucer a feminist based on this piece of literature.

Cox, Catherine S. "Holy Erotica and the Virgin Word: Promiscuous Glossing in the Wife of Bath's Prologue." Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 5.1 (1993): 207-237. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 28 Oct. 2009.
This article discusses the language of “The Wife of Bath's Prologue,” pointing out that the Wife could never truly speak with a woman's voice because she has been constructed in a man's world. It also focuses on the topic of “glossing” a text, as Cox claims Chaucer has done with the prologue, inserting overtly masculine vocabulary for a purpose. This argument takes on another layer as the Wife herself speaks about glossing while relaying her own glossed version of scripture.

Cubitt, Catherine. “Virginity and Misogyny in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century England.” Gender and History 12.1 (2000): 1-32.
This article explains how women were affected by Benedictine orders that stressed marriage over sexual deviance. Because many women feared being dominated by a man, they avoided marriage and instead chose chastity. Others, who had previously been subject to rape and abuse, found themselves protected under the orders. Just as the Wife of Bath does, the article discusses a married woman's sexual obligation to her husband.

Cullinan, Colleen Carpenter. “In Pain and Sorrow: Childbirth, Incarnation, and the Suffering of Women.” Cross Currents 58.1 (2008): 95-107.
Cullinan's article details the pain of childbearing and society's acceptance of this pain as a natural part of a woman's reproductive right. Using religious discourse, she explains how, since the Fall of Man, it has been culturally accepted that women should suffer. This article interests me because it helps explain the Wife's desire to have masculine equality and escape the constraints of womanhood.

Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. "The Wife of Bath and the Mark of Adam." Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15.4 (1988): 399-416.
This article discusses the Wife's use of language and her knowledge about Biblical texts, which would have been uncharacteristic for a woman of her time. This knowledge unmistakably paints her voice as masculine, Hansen argues.

Karras, Ruth Mazo. “Writing about – and around – medieval women.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 29.3 (1993): 214-218.
This article is a review of five books on the topic of “the experiences of medieval women,” however, the reviewer claims that sources on the subject were profoundly limited. Karras states that most of the books she could locate on the topic of medieval women were primarily concerned with misogyny and the male-dominance of said women. Therefore, there is no justifiable voice for women of the era to be referenced. “The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale,” although written by a man, are some of the era's only feminine voices to be found.

Killings, Douglas B., ed. “Genesis A.” Codex Junius XI. Project Gutenberg, 1996.
I will refer to this section of the Anglo-Saxon manuscript to cite the devil's temptation of Eve. As he tries to influence her to talk Adam into eating from the Tree of Life, he says, “Thou mayest rule the heart of Adam.” I find it very interesting that the devil tempts the woman – defined as the weaker sex – with sovereignty over her husband. How ironic that Chaucer's Wife desires the same.

Morgan, Gerald. “Medieval Misogyny and Gawain's Outburst Against Women in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.'” Modern Language Review 97.2 (2002): 265-279.
Morgan's article explores anti-feminist themes in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and parallels them with Chaucer's Knight in Canterbury Tales. This article may be relevant to my discussion as it draws strong parallels between “The Wife of Bath's Tale” and the story of the knight on King Arthur's court who was found guilty of assaulting a maiden.

Nelson, Janet L. “Gender, Memory and Social Power.” Gender and History 12.3 (2000) 722-735.
This article explores the historical role of women in families, as well as their contribution to written literature. It also defines male dominance, explaining the historical and societal reasons a man desires to reign supreme over his family.

Rigby, S. H. “Misogynist versus Feminist Chaucer.” Chaucer in Context: Society, Allegory and Gender. Manchester University Press, 1996. 116-163. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 56. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 116-163. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Ohio University. 28 Oct. 2009 .
This article discusses Chaucer's sexual politics in Canterbury Tales, and defines the ways that his work can be read as both misogynist and feminist in nature. Where I aim to determine Chaucer's intent, this article is more of a description of his characters and their sexual attributes.

Treharne, Elaine. “The Stereotype Confirmed? Chaucer's Wife of Bath.” Writing Gender and Genre in Medieval Literature: Approaches to Old and Middle English Texts. Ed. Elaine Treharne Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002. 93-115. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 93-115. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Ohio University. 28 Oct. 2009 .
In this article, Treharne describes how Chaucer was capable of constructing man's most feared opponent – a domineering female. The author focuses on Chaucer's fine grasp of language to paint a satirical image of the society in which he lived.