Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Uriah's Sexuality

Examples of Uriah Heep's Sexuality

"Although David calls attention to Uriah's unruly body in order to mark it as different, this very difference becomes, in the process, captivating to him. David is attracted to Uriah's oozing, uncontained body, which dramatically diverges from the English mascline ideal." 'red-headed animal': Race, Sexuality and Dickens's Uriah Heep", by Tara Macdonald, Critical Survey, Vol. 17, 2005, p. 49

"Uriah's 'unsheltered and unshaded' physique implies that he is laid open and exposed, which is later emphasised by his oozing body and his sexualised nature. For example, as Uriah reads the law manual Tidd's Practice, he leaves 'clammy tracks upon the page', an act that can be interpreted as masturbatory1, and which is purposely performed in front of David." Ibid., p. 53

"If skin works as a marker of bodily boundaries, then Uriah's leaking body constantly threatens to get inside of David, initiating a peculiar physical contact between men. after touching Uriah's 'clammy' hand, David relates: 'I rubbed my hand afterwards, to warm it, and to rub his off'. David's interactions with Uriah demonstrate a complex combination of carnal fixation and paranoid disavowal that suggests an intense homoerotic relation between the two men." Ibid., p. 56

"When Uriah stays over in David's rooms after dinner at Mrs Waterbrook's, David takes the opportunity to watch him while he sleeps. He sees him 'lying on his back with his legs extending to I don't know where, gurglings taking place in his throat, stoppages in his nose, and his mouth open like a post-office'. Reading the scene as a homoerotic encounter, ... 'Uriah's spread-eagled legs and gaping mouth mimic, in grotesque form, the posture of sexual receptivity, an impression that the narrative immediately attempts to dismiss with the homely simile of the post-office.'" Ibid., p. 57

1 The Victorian view of sexuality escapes the modern reader, thus requires a review. The following description, written by William Acton, a major medical doctor (more liberated in his view than most at this time), dealing with reproduction and reproductive diseases in England at this time. The description is of a boy who habitually masturbates:

The frame is stunted and weak, the muscles undeveloped, the eye is sunken and heavy, the complexion is sallow, pasty, or covered with spots of acne, the hands are damp and cold, and the skin moist. The boy shuns the society of others, creeps about alone, joins with repugnance in the amusements of his schoolfellows. He cannot look any one in the face, and becomes careless in dress and uncleanly in person. His intellect has become sluggish and enfeebled, and if his evil habits are persisted in, he may end in becoming a drivelling idiot or a peevish valetudinarian. Such boys are to be seen in all stages of degeneration, but what we have described is but the result towards which they all are tending. "The Other Victorians", by Steven Marcus, Basic Books, Inc., 1966, p. 19. Return

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