In Montaigne's "Of the Power of the Imagination," one example speaks of a distinguished count that worries about his ability to perform on his wedding night, to which the first-person narrator responds by giving him a "flat piece of gold on which were engraved some celestial figures," an object that would professedly solve the issue. The narrator enforces the ubiquity of imagination yet acknowledges the silliness of such a phenomenon as with the piece of gold, saying, "inanity gives [these monkey tricks] weight and reverence." His confession also implicates the failure of the male phallus and the second resort by which the friend must access his symbol of power. For without the use of the phallus when circumstances deem it necessary, at least what is thought of as necessary to the new groom, one goes about searching for whatever means of help in order to make use of his own self. He tries to conceal this apparent show of weakness by an alternative that will strengthen his own being.
Likewise, in "The Indiscreet Jewels" by Diderot, Mangogul's inability to point his ring at the sultana, Mirzoza, partly strips him of his manhood: "But what stops me?...i tremble...could it be that Mirzoza...? No, that is impossible." Prior to obtaining the ring, and even at the end of the excerpt, Mangogul shies away from any direct control over his own wife. To reimburse for his lack of power in that sense, he points his ring toward any woman that he wishes to hear her jewel speak from. As the object performing the action, the "jewel," or the female genitals, are inherently dominant over the male being, as the latter remains stagnant and observant while the female becomes outward and honest.
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