Kathryn Simpson

Description:

 

A critical piece analysing the anti-patriarchal female agency, whilst addressing issues of patriarchal dangers and societal victimisation.

 

Abstract:

This essay analyses female characters in Aphra Behn’s The Rover, and argues the degree to which they subversively defy the constraints of a patriarchal social system. Simpson also draws upon the key features within Restoration comedies, the concept of marriage arrangements and the importance of chastity during the early modern period.

 

 

To what extent can Aphra Behn’s The Rover be said to be anti-patriarchal text?

­­­

Throughout the seventeenth century, all aspects of society were dominated by a patriarchal social system. One of the main principles of such social systems was that ‘every woman should be under the authority of the appropriate male, normally her father, master, or husband’[1]. Thus meaning, all aspects of a woman’s life, including her family life, were predominately dictated by men. In addition, women were expected to conform to the popular seventeenth-century notion of the ‘chaste, silent, obedient’[2] woman, which often meant they were confined to the home, whilst the men were working in the public domain. Despite being a woman in a world full of men, writers such as Aphra Behn refused to conform to such societal constraints, and this is particularly evident in her writing. Her 1677 play, The Rover[3], for example, presents some of its female characters as subversive of the patriarchal constraints of the time through the use of dress, trickery, and decisions relating to marriage.

During the Restoration period, Carnival festivals occurred within Catholic countries as a celebration before Lent. Such festivities allowed people to take on new identities, enabling them to express their true selves. Critics such as Mikhail Bakhtin suggest that Carnival celebrations can also be seen as an ‘inversion of normal hierarchies, celebration of the body and the popular, [and] may be used as a way of criticising the status quo’[4]. Such ideas are prevalent within Behn’s text as Hellena’s multiple disguises enable her to invert the typical male and female hierarchies, thus, allowing her to change her predestined future as a nun that her brother has intended. During the opening of the text, Hellena voices her controversial opinions relating to the arranged futures set out for both herself and Florinda by their brother, Don Pedro. In doing so, Don Pedro demands that Callis must ‘lock her up all this Carnival, and at Lent she shall begin her everlasting penance in a monastery’[5]. Thus, her attendance at the Carnival already presents her as an anti-patriarchal character, as she is failing to remain obedient under the authority of her brother. However, it is not only her attendance at the Carnival that defies her brother, but also her use of masquerade and her intentions with such disguises. Her initial disguise is that of a gipsy and the reception she receives from Willmore is somewhat predatory, as he begins to ask ‘will you tell an amourous stranger what luck he’s like to have?’[6] in going to bed with her. After little conversing, Willmore vows to ‘divert so wicked a design’[7] and agrees to assist Hellena in getting out of her arranged future, enabling her to not ‘die a maid’[8]. In making such arrangements, it could be argued that Hellena is acting ‘according to her own sexual drive, which clashes with patriarchal conceptions of femininity’[9], as she is again defying her brother’s intentions for her as a nun, when she seeks to find love with Willmore. This essentially goes against patriarchal conceptions as in finding her own love, Hellena is failing to conform to the traditional marriage arrangements whereby the ‘parents interfered in the process of courting by proposing a suitable match’[10]. Such subversions of patriarchal ideals are further shown within Act four, Scene two, as Hellena disguises herself as a male in order to secure her marriage with Willmore despite his experiences with the courtesan, Angellica. She tells Angellica that Willmore had ‘vowed and sighed, and swore he loved her dearly’[11] and thus highlights his ‘inconstancy’[12] if she were to be with him, thus securing Willmore for herself. In dressing as a man, Hellena is able to voice her sexual intent that the patriarchal society had silenced for women, as society believed that such sexual desires were only restricted to prostitutes. Thus, in setting up her own marriage with Willmore via her disguises, Hellena is able to ‘apply [her] knowledge of the gender binaries and roles, including male privileges in discourse and turn them to [her] advantage’[13]. Therefore, Behn presents Hellena as an anti-patriarchal character as she undergoes different disguises in order to display her true erotic desires, which ultimately defy her brother’s intentions for her as a nun.

A key feature of Restoration comedies, as seen in Aphra Behn’s The Rover, is the use of female tricksters. Throughout the early modern period, tricksters were recurring characters that enabled the plot to drive forward, whilst also providing entertainment and wit. William Dynes suggests that a trickster generally ‘take on disguises, adopt new voices or new languages, and shift gender, all to take advantage of what they see as a social mobility limited only by their wit and creativity’[14]. This is particularly evident within Behn’s play and is represented through characters such as Lucetta, a scheming prostitute who robs Blunt of his possessions. It is during Act one, Scene two, that Lucetta sets up her cunning plan against Blunt, claiming that she knows ‘by his gazing; if he be brisk he’ll venture to follow me; and then, if I understand my trade, he’s mine’[15]. The reference to her ‘trade’ suggests that trickery is something she does often, and something she does well judging by her confidence that he will do as she says. The stage directions that follow, whereby he ‘struts, and cocks, and walks, and gazes on her’[16], confirm her intelligence in her trade, as she is able to predict what he will do. Following a night with Lucetta, Blunt gloats to Willmore and Belville, referring to her as ‘a person of quality’[17]. However, it is during their second meeting that Blunt becomes aware of his false perception of her. Throughout Act three, Scene two, Lucetta continues to plot against Blunt, as she convinces him that ‘of first sight of that sweet face and shape it made me your absolute captive’[18], and thus encourages him to undress. It is during this act that Lucetta dispatches Blunt, and robs him of his ‘sword and hat… gold watch [and]… a bunch of diamond rings’[19]. Essentially, Lucetta’s rogue actions within the play place her in direct contrast with the unintelligible Blunt, as she is able to use her femininity as a way of getting what she wants. Thus, despite Lucetta being a ‘prostitute of low economic status, she manages to turn the tables on the fop’[20] and through stealing his belongings, she is able to take advantage regarding social mobility, as William Dynes suggested previously. In presenting Lucetta as a crafty prostitute, she fails to comply to the popular female notion of the chaste and virtuous woman and uses her lack of chastity to lure men in and steal from them, resulting in Behn’s text becoming anti-patriarchal. In addition, like many of the oppressed women of the time, Lucetta resists being victimised under the authority of men and instead victimises male characters, in this case, Blunt, making him the victim of female manipulation.

Marriage arrangements during the seventeenth century were often a secured inheritance for wealth and social status within families. Furthermore, chastity played a huge role in such arrangements, as society viewed women as virtuous, and thus more desirable if they remained chaste until marriage. Therefore, women who remained unchaste were deemed unmarriageable and thus were forced to secure financial stability outside of marriage, resulting in the rise of prostitution and courtesans, as displayed in Behn’s play. Following the death of her wealthy father, Angellica is obliged to sell her body in order to become financially independent.  Such independence is expressed within Act two, Scene one, whereby Angellica notes ‘the bravest and noblest of mankind have purchased my favours at so dear a rate’[21], thus highlighting the success in wealth she has received in her trade. Due to such successes, the famous courtesan sets her price at ‘a thousand crowns a month’[22] of which Don Pedro and Don Antoniou are eager to pay, so much so that a fight breaks out between them, resulting in Angellica demanding them to ‘hold, I command you, if for me you fight’[23]. Both Angellica’s financial independence, as well as her ability to momentarily control the male actions within the play present her as a challenge to the patriarchy as she is not only able to provide for herself, but she is also an example of a woman who isn’t under the authority of a male figure. Similarly, this is further represented through Willmore’s account of her ‘unmerciful price’[24], stating that ‘at present I am unprovided of money’[25]. Essentially, it is the male that is expected to financially secure the female, and with Willmore’s inability to do so, again presents Angellica as a challenge to the typical patriarchal system. However, despite Willmore’s lack of money, he is still successful in wooing Angellica, so much so that she queries ‘can thou believe they’ll be entirely thine/Without considering they were mercenary?’[26], giving up her profession entirely in return for Willmore’s love. In doing so, Angellica immediately loses her agency as she is no longer secured of her previous financial gain, and has broken the rules of her profession whereby ‘prostitute’s interests were financial, not emotional’[27]. In addition, it is through Moretta’s comments that we are able to understand the vulnerability that Angellica has succumbed to, as she states ‘Is all our project fallen to this? To love the enemy to our trade?’[28], whilst also referring to Willmore as a ‘rogue’[29] and the act of love as a ‘disease’[30]. Similarly, such comments examine the desertion of feminine honour, as well as class as she falls for a man who deems himself ‘a plague of this poverty’[31]. In making Angellica a victim of Willmore’s deceit, Behn is illustrating that Angellica ‘has a place in society as long as she treats herself as a commodity’[32], however, due to her being unchaste and therefore unmarriageable, she becomes marginalised when she falls in love, thus losing her power. Therefore, despite Angellica’s character previously adopting agency in relation to financial independency, she ultimately becomes a victim of a patriarchal society when she succumbs to romantic love, as her unchaste demeanour is no longer desirable outside of her profession.

Similar to that of Angellica’s character, Behn also presents Florinda’s character in an ambivalent manner, giving her agency whilst also reducing her to a victim of patriarchal society regarding issues relating to marriage. During Behn’s time of writing, it was a male relative’s responsibility to ‘[negotiate] marriage contracts for the women in their family… to enhance familial and dynastic interests’[33]. Thus, in the opening scene of The Rover, Don Pedro pleads for Florinda to ‘consider Don Vincentio’s fortune, and the jointure he’ll make you’[34], to which she responds that her ‘youth, beauty, and fortune… ought not to be thrown away on his age and jointure’[35]. Clearly unwilling to be reduced to an object of exchange, Florinda defies her brother in going to the Carnival, where she gives her lover Belville a letter demanding him to meet ‘at ten at night at the garden gate’[36] in order to relieve her of the ‘threatened violence’[37] Don Pedro has intended in arranging her to marry his friend, Don Antonio. Despite the male relatives of the family having to arrange such marriages, the church clergy during the Restoration period believed that whilst children were still under obligation to obey the demands of their parents, ‘[they] should still have the ability to choose who [they] wanted to marry’[38]. This is pivotal if we are to look at Florinda’s agency within the text, as such power shifts in the patriarchal environment enabled her to choose her suitor, which gave her a sense of agency. This agency also mirrors the agency that the Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi[39] receives, as despite her brothers fearing she will remarry to someone of a lower class, she does so anyway, giving her power similar to that of Florinda’s. However, prior to Florinda’s and Belville’s marriage, Behn also highlights the dangers that women faced within a society when they weren’t placed under the protection of men. During both Act three, Scene five and Act four, Scene five, Florinda experiences two near-rapes from both Willmore and Blunt, referring to her as a ‘wench’[40]. It is during the scene with Blunt that Florinda explains she is a ‘harmless virgin, that takes your house for sanctuary’[41], again referring back to the importance of the chaste woman. Blunt, however, fails to believe her, referring to her as a ‘harmless virgin with a pox’ and demanding her to ‘come, no resistance’[42], believing her to be a prostitute. It has been suggested that throughout this period, prostitution was tolerated ‘because it was thought to deflect male sexual advances away from potential brides, conserving them from the marriage market’[43]. If this is the case, this ultimately puts prostitutes and women in general in danger, as sexual advances and rape were directed at them in order to save the chastity for those intended for marriage, such as Florinda. As Kate Aughterson notes, despite Behn giving Florinda agency in who she chooses to marry, she also illustrates ‘the vulnerability of both a passive woman and a woman who chooses to move out of the confines of family and domestic space’[44]. Therefore, despite Behn possibly not agreeing with the idea of arranged marriages, the ending to her play suggests that she succumbs to the patriarchal ideas relating to marriage, in that women should remain under the authority of men in order to be protected from dangers such as rape. This results in her text both subverting and conforming to patriarchal norms through issues relating to marriage.

Through the use of masquerade, marriage, trickery and economic exchange, Behn is able to create a play that both gives agency to its female characters, whilst also highlighting the dangers they are faced with under a patriarchal society. In doing so, she presents us with a text that is both conforms to patriarchal ideals, and also one that defies some of its limitations. This is done through characters such as Hellena and Lucetta, who appear completely of their own authority and are able to decipher their class and future themselves, without the aid of men. On the other hand, whilst characters such as Florinda and Angellica appear momentarily liberated, both women are victims of societal constraints, with Angellica remaining a victim for the remainder of the play.

 

[1] Bernard Capp, When Gossips Meet: Women, Family, and Neighbourhood in Early Modern England (United Kingdom, Oxford, 2003), p. 26.

[2] Suzanne W Hill, Chaste, Silent & Obedient (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1988)

[3] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999)

[4] Kate Aughterson, Aphra Behn: The Comedies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 167.

[5] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 9.

[6] Ibid., p. 17.

[7] Ibid., p. 18.

[8] Ibid., p. 18.

[9] Elien Rottiers, Marriage and gender in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Lib Ugent, <http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/786/626/RUG01-001786626_2012_0001_AC.pdf> (accessed 23 May 2017)

[10] Katherine Quinn, Broken Boundaries: Women & Feminism in Restoration Drama (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996), p. 73.

[11] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 81.

[12] Ibid., p. 82.

[13] Elien Rottiers, Marriage and gender in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Lib Ugent, <http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/786/626/RUG01-001786626_2012_0001_AC.pdf> (accessed 23 May 2017)

[14] William Dyes, ‘The Trickster Figure in Jacobean City Comedy’, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 33: 2 (1993), p. 366.

[15] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p.19.

[16] Ibid., p. 19.

[17] Ibid., p. 27.

[18] Ibid., p. 55.

[19] Ibid., p. 58.

[20]Ann Marie Stewart, The Ravishing Restoration: Aphra Behn, Violence, and Comedy (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2010), p. 90.

[21] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 30.

[22] Ibid., p. 29.

[23] Ibid., p. 34.

[24] Ibid., p. 37.

[25] Ibid., p. 38.

[26] Ibid., p. 40.

[27] Elien Rottiers, Marriage and gender in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Lib Ugent, <http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/786/626/RUG01-001786626_2012_0001_AC.pdf> (accessed 23 May 2017)

[28] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 42.

[29] Ibid., p. 42.

[30] Ibid., p. 30.

[31] Ibid., p. 29.

[32] Anita Pacheco, ‘Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn’s “The Rover”’, ELH, 65: 2 (1998), p. 22.

[33] Katherine Quinn, Broken Boundaries: Women & Feminism in Restoration Drama (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996), p. 73

[34] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 7.

[35] Ibid., p. 7.

[36] Ibid., p. 22.

[37] Ibid., p. 15.

[38] Susan Staves, ‘Behn, Women and Society.’ The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 13.

[39] John Webster, The tragedy of the Duchess of Malfi (Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1961)

[40] Aphra Behn, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999), p. 60.

[41] Ibid., p. 93.

[42] Ibid., p. 93.

[43] Carole Levin, Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France and England (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007), p. 101.

[44] Kate Aughterson, Aphra Behn: The Comedies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 84.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Aughterson, Kate, Aphra Behn: The Comedies (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)

Behn, Aphra, The Rover (Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1999)

Dyes, William, ‘The Trickster Figure in Jacobean City Comedy’, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 33: 2 (1993)

Levin, Carole, Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France and England (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007)

Pacheco, Anita, ‘Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn’s “The Rover”’, ELH, 65: 2 (1998)

Quinn, Katherine, Broken Boundaries: Women & Feminism in Restoration Drama (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996)

Rottiers, Elien, Marriage and gender in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Lib Ugent, <http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/786/626/RUG01-001786626_2012_0001_AC.pdf> (accessed 23 May 2017)

Staves, Susan, ‘Behn, Women and Society.’ The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Stewart, Ann Marie, The Ravishing Restoration: Aphra Behn, Violence, and Comedy (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2010)

Webster, John, The tragedy of the Duchess of Malfi (Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1961)