ABSTRACT
Ambivalence in the conceptualization of the physical body in these tales is paralleled by an ambivalence in their projection of the social body. This chapter examines first and foremost a series of outsider figures or figures of subordinate social status. In rejecting the advances of the men with whom they work, these young women are seen to dispute the primacy of male desire and must be punished accordingly. This shared structure is underpinned by the notion that maidservants are sexually available as a 'natural' correlative to their lowly social status and material dependence on the master of the household. Comic narratives concerning masters and servants (or mistresses and maidservants) and machinations within the domestic household clearly depend on the disparity between ostensible social status and the real balance of power between individuals in certain situations. The domestic contextualization of the comic action in the aforementioned texts is kept to a minimum.
