In the early nineteenth century, Heinrich Von Kleist wrote a short drama called “The Marquise of O”. The Marquise of O, also known as Giulietta, is an innocent and honorable widow who becomes unknowingly pregnant after a Russian count rescues her from an attempted molestation during battle. Giulietta utilizes her prior knowledge from previous pregnancies, her “landmarks of…thought”, to handle her unknown and inconceivable pregnancy, the “wild profusion of existing things” in her life.
The motherly instincts Giulietta developed allowed her to identify what was making her ill. Kleist informs the readers that when Giulietta first encounters her morning sickness from being pregnant, she was bewildered by her strange condition. However, soon Giulietta
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Mothers like Giulietta knows that a woman must have sexual intercourse with a man to be with child. Yet, according to Kleist, Giulietta does not recall a moment when she has slept with a man. Hence, Giulietta’s expertise on what to do as a child-bearer is the only way to tidy up this disarrangement in her life. Kleist informs the readers that after noticing her recognizable symptoms, Giulietta decides to do what any expecting woman in her time period would do; Giulietta summons a doctor and later a midwife to validate her pregnancy theory. Subsequently, the doctor answered “that the Marquise had judged correctly” (90) and the midwife confirmed that the Marquise was indeed with child. Even though her memories may not align with her knowledge, Giulietta’s prior experience on how to deal with pregnancies led her to a specific route for concrete confirmation. The practice Giulietta had with her two children offers a familiar path in the wilderness. She takes advantage of in order to control her situation. The verification she receives from people “with professional knowledge” (90) solidifies her suspicions about being pregnant and finally, true acceptance that she is