from the Marquis de Sade to the film with Johnny Depp

The incorrigible Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) is aristocratically busy writing poetry, drinking like there is no tomorrow, parkouring from bed to bed. libertine died aged about thirty during the English Restoration due to his debauchery, including syphilis. Who’s better than Johnny Depp could he play him on the big screen? I mean the movie Libertine Directed by Laurence Dunmore, 2004.

But know that libertine he did not always consider vice his guiding light, since the term has philosophical origins. Let’s find out its origin and development in literature.

Libertine and debauchery: origin of the term

In the seventeenth century debauchery indicates the mental attitude of philosophers who weaken ties with authority and tradition. Treccani says:

The body of doctrines of the “strong spirits” or “free thinkers” of the seventeenth century, who in Italy, France, Holland and Germany professed unscrupulous ideas that often came into conflict with the churches. This is not an organic teaching, but it is characterized by: denial of miracles and the immortality of the soul; criticism of religions; materialism.

In the 18th century, the term slipped down the slippery slope of social behavior. Libertine he becomes one who lives in mundane conditions, rejects any transcendental faith and, above all, directs his life to seek material pleasures. Having weakened the ideological and philosophical charge of the origins, the libertine is completely integrated into the structures of modern reality, which he completely accepts.

Its hallmark is the subversion of prevailing morality. The scope of its action penetrates into the erotic, the hunting grounds of adventure, new interpersonal relationships, and strong sensations. Its representatives express an extremism that, as we will see, exceeds the goals of the Enlightenment in which it originated.

The 18th-century Italian counterpart, modeled after Pietro Aretino, took less radical positions compared to France. Its representatives are adventurers of various origins, in the service of European courts and salons, but with complete psychological autonomy. Just think of Giacomo Casanova, our DOC libertine who even has a habit of falling in love sometimes.

Libertine in literature

Anthropological prototype Manon Lescaut and offers his irresponsible lover Lifestyle freed from all moral law, which in the 18th century reaches a literary crossroads.

On the one hand, the conflict between love-passion and society, which is destined to flourish in romanticism, intensifies. On the other hand, the search for pleasure and the will to power lead to a dissolute tendency, which deals the final blow to the Enlightenment myth of Reason and the natural goodness of the individual.

The dissolute romance of Choderlos de Laclos and the Marquis de Sade is the other side of the Enlightenment. Let’s take a quick look at why.

As a subtitle Dangerous ties (Dangerous Liaisons, ed.), the first seems to be driven by a moral intention to document the corruption of the customs of aristocratic society.

In fact, both Viscount Valmont and Marquise Merteuil, having achieved their goals, resign themselves to defeat, death and illness. Instead, in the second case, social condemnation is absent in the name of an upside-down world where vice triumphs.

Let’s take it one step further. However, in both authors, self-affirmation and erotic despotism coincide. This means that the Mind has become an instrument of power to dominate others for the personal ends of selfishness and pleasure. In fact, the driving force of their characters is the desire to establish their own laws of life, very different from the voluptuous and narcissistic hedonism of Casanova.

It matters little whether the remedy is psychological or physical cruelty, carried out with sophistication, sadism, perversion, because ultimately Enlightenment Reason is subordinated to an immoral and sometimes criminal project, as in 120 days of Sodom and Gomorrah – denies himself.