Denying an Ideal: Maidservants in the Works of Sacher-Masoch and Freud

This article explores late nineteenth-century texts by Sacher-Masoch and Freud to demonstrate that the liminal role the maidservant played within the family made her the ideal sexual object. Simultaneously she must be contained, because she has the ability to destroy the familial institution by displacing the mother. Both authors attempt to carve out a space in order to preserve the mother, but this does not reflect common social practices, including their own childhood experiences.