Abstract
This article studies the book "Rape Fantasies" and the writer asks the question "Who is the victim when a woman is raped?" The writer maintains that the women of Margaret Atwood's short story "Rape Fantasies" suggest that women often cannot identify who is a victim and who is not a victim when they are raped. The story is told as a monologue in the first person voice of a woman named Estelle. It chronicles a group of women indulging in spoken fantasies about rape, specifically being raped by men. At first, the women's joking tones suggest that they are not really talking about being raped at all, but enjoying their sexuality. The women desire sex with strangers but use the word 'rape' as a way of discussing their unspoken and unacknowledged sexual desires in a culture that does not permit women to openly acknowledge their sexuality in a positive fashion. But at the end of the story, as Estelle is revealed to be speaking her monologue to a man she has met in a bar, Atwood suggests that ultimately, even when women are joking about rape, rape is still a very serious act against women in terms of female victimization.

From the Paper
"In defiance of the warnings cited by the narrator from popular women's magazines, Chrissy says she fears men. But Chrissy is still a victim, because she cannot enjoy sex other than in terms of being forced to enjoy sex. In her daily life Chrissy dresses to attract men and to win male approval. In Chrissy's private life she uses the idea of forced sexuality as a way of enjoying male attentions without the pressures of the consenting to sex. Thus, Chrissy is still a victim of rape ideology.
Estelle, the office worker responds to Chrissy's comments by noting how popular the topic of rape has become in women's magazines, citing titles like "Rape: Ten Things To Do About It" is less open in her attitude. At first, Estelle pokes fun at the magazine's obsession, noting that the carefulness urged by the magazine on the part of women makes it seem like avoiding sexual assault is a step-by-step process ''like it was ten new hairdos or something," not a serious criminal and personal issue. The story evolves from Estelle's point of view. But there are hints that Estelle initially finds the conversation of her female colleagues uncomfortable, as is evidenced by her focus on the beginning pursuit of the women, a bridge game and by concentrating on her bidding."

Tags:sexuality, victim, fantasy, ideology

Abstract
This paper discusses the phenomenon of rape fantasies and takes a look at the research that examines the reasons behind these fantasies. Several of the theories offered for the fantasies are cited and explained and the different types of fantasies are discussed. The paper further points out that some of the theories regarding rape fantasies are reliable and consistent while some are much less so. The paper then points out three elements that should be used to properly analyze rape fantasies.

Table of Contents
Exciting and Reluctant Rape Fantasies
Current Explanations of Rape Fantasies
Masochism
Sexual Blame Avoidance
Openness to Sexual Experience
Desirability
Male Rape Culture
Biological Predisposition to Surrender
Sympathetic Activation
Adversary Transformation
Conclusion

From the Paper
"To understand the phenomenon of rape, we have to first understand the dynamics that might lead to it. One of the strongest dynamics that have been discussed in various researches is the phenomenon of sexual fantasies. Sexual fantasies can be very vivid and simultaneously can be very vague and can be based on real life experiences or mere thoughts (Leitenberg & Henning, 1995). Fantasies can actually pour significant light on the reasons behind the attitude structure and choices an individual makes because there are no social or moral boundaries when it comes to sexual fantasies and hence can allow us to really understand how an individual's mind works and reacts and then influences his behavioral patterns (Ellis & Symons, 1990).
The string of concepts that have been founded on the basis of sexual fantasies is the concept of rape fantasies which has always bewildered many of the psychologists of the phenomenon. Hazen (1983), in one of his researches, explained that the existence of the phenomenon of rape fantasies alone is not the only bewilderment, the true puzzler is when one starts to analyze the reasons behind the existence of the phenomenon."

Tags:dominating, forceful, machoism, victim

Abstract
This paper explores sexual fantasies and how fantasies are experienced as a means of providing release from social limitations on erotic behavior for men and women alike.

From the Paper
"The plot in Margaret Atwood's "Rape Fantasies" is rather hidden, but is revealed through the mind and conversations of Estelle. This story exhibits character traits of Estelle as she speaks to the reader about her and her colleague's rape fantasies. As Estelle voices her opinions on this anomalous topic and on her critical opinions of the other women, Darlene, Greta, and Chrissy, we develop a certain perspective of her character. Estelle reveals her own persona by expressing her thoughts and attitudes toward the rape fantasies of her colleagues and her own, and Atwood allows us to begin to understand to person Estelle is because she goes beyond first person, via a narrator who befriends the reader. Estelle is the only wholly developed character, and has many pleasant and unpleasant personality traits that give this story its voice. Throughout the story she analyzes the other characters, proves her competitiveness, and tries to identify with people and situations, which allow us to make our own opinions on the character of Estelle..."

Tags:atwood, fantasies, margaret, rape

Abstract
This paper reviews the use of fantasy in Eddie Gein's mind as he launched his horrific wave of murders in the late 1950s. The paper explores Gein's sexual frustrations, his curious inability to connect with women (or to find sexual gratification) in anything approaching a normal way, and his deeply conflicted relationship with an abusive and domineering mother. In the end, the paper suggests that Gein had fantasies about dominating and possessing women that were conjoined to murderous fantasies directed towards the maternal presence in his life.

Tags:gein, mind, theories

Abstract
In order to analyze people's fantasies, Sigmund Freud says that we can look at their creative writing, thereby seeing the wishes and desires that they have. By approaching an analysis of the character Sir Lancelot in Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur" in this way, this paper provides insight on what was important to men in that society. Lancelot is made the primary hero of the story. The paper shows, therefore, that Lancelot becomes the vehicle through which Malory and male readers can stop being "ashamed" of their fantasies and find a release of tension through the adoration Lancelot receives from women and the excellence of Lancelot's fighting skills.

From the Paper
"Guenivere's desire for Lancelot throughout Malory's story shows us how Lancelot is the figure of a daydream. Guenivere is the wife of the king. This attribute of Guenivere's places her on a pedestal. She is the most important woman in the territory controlled by King Arthur. Having an affair with a married woman such as Guenivere would make the person having the affair seem important. Guenivere's actions toward Lancelot characterize her as someone who is in desperate need of the hero's love. When Lancelot is trying to draw attention away from his interest in Guenivere, Guenivere says, "Sir Lancelot, I see and feel daily that they love beginneth to slacken, for ye have no joy to be in my presence, but ever ye are out of this court (403). It makes a male feel good to have an important woman want his "love" and not want the "love" to "slacken.""

Tags:Guenivere, desire, hero, self-esteem

Abstract
This paper presents a study of Eros in literary fantasy based on seven short stories (Ambrose Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser", Charles Dickens's "The Signalman", Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Vei"l, Patricia Highsmith's "The Snail-Watcher", H. P. Lovecraft's "The Festival", Richard Matheson's "Born of Man and Woman", Edgar. Allan Poe's "The Black Cat") and two short excerpts from Gothic novels (M. G. Lewis's "The Monk" and Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho"), but occasional references are made to other works by these authors and also to Henry James, the Bronte sisters and Le Fanu. The paper begins with a brief presentation of the Greek myth of Eros. The second part of the study considers the problem of knowledge in relation to the erotic dimension of literary fantasies. In the third part of the study, the paper turns to the different manifestations of Eros in fantasy and the process of attraction-repulsion, before examining, in the fourth and final part, two erotic motifs which, latently or overtly, introduce an erotic dimension.

From the Paper
"Indeed, when looking into the texts that form the corpus of our study, one recurring particularity is noticeable in all of them - all narrators are very much concerned with seeing and knowing. The reader is confronted with the narrator's or protagonist's persistent questioning and that questioning also becomes the reader's. We could call it the "wh-" of fantasy - Halpin Frayser does not know "whence and whither" he travels; Dickens's narrator wants to know "what" the signalman's trouble is and asks "Who is it?"; the snail-watcher has to know "what" his snails are up to and "how" they breed; Antonia earnestly demands "How came I here?... Where am I?", while Ambrosio needs to know "why" she refuses him and their mutual questioning goes on in two consecutive paragraphs; Radcliffe's Emily asks her attendant a thousand questions. The reader is a witness of countless who-what-when-where-how-s and for the most part, they remain unanswered. It is as if the signalman answered on our behalf - "I don't know." The texts become desperate attempts to pass on the same biblically borrowed message that stands out in Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly, the message that "we know in part, and we prophesy in part". These intense efforts to see, to find out, to know are easily explained by the fact that we are dealing with fantasy which, partly by definition, is the literature of the unknown. But the work of many authors of fantasy also carries a heavy cultural heritage that feeds on centuries of known written history, on repeatedly told legends and on established myths."

Tags:greek, roman, cupid, deity, youth, bow, blindfolded, statue, mischievous, creature, wings

Abstract
This essay provides a comparison and contrast between two of the greatest epics ever written - "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Hobbit".

Abstract
This essay draws on the similarities and comparisons between Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and Tim Burton's film, "Sleepy Hollow" with specific reference to the daydream scenes.

From the paper:

"Yet this daydream has no few of the aspects of a nightmare as well. In the real world, the worst Ichabod will ever endure is a fall from his faithful, and borrowed, steed Gunpowder. In the daydream film, he shall be skewered with a ghostly sword, beaten, choked, and otherwise bodily assaulted. The horsemen will not be a possible figment, a traveler who merely keeps pace and tosses pumpkins; to the contrary, he shall kill any number of people."

Tags:scarecrow, fields, dreamer, hero, horsemen, fighter, pacifist, bookish, melodrama

From the Paper
" Margaret Atwood's "Rape Fantasies" is an interesting mixture of stream-of-consciousness speculation and fiction, a short story with elements of non-fiction, a story and an essay combined. What makes the piece work as it does is the tone the author takes, a tone that maintains a sense of humor while having an underling sense of the importance of the issue. In the final analysis, the last line of the piece is what gives it its real poignancy and its strength, while everything that has gone before serves both to bolster the importance of the subject while poking some fun at the degree to which the media seems to have suddenly "discovered" it, as if prior to that it was not a problem at all.
The irony of the piece is inherent in its title. The use of the word "fantasies" coupled with the word "rape" leads to some misunderstanding in the story itself as the women playing cards.."