TRICKERY, MARRIAGE AND FEMININITY IN THE ROVER 1

Trickery, Marriage and Femininity in The Rover

TRICKERY, MARRIAGE AND FEMININITY IN THE ROVER 2

Aphra Behn is accepted as the first female professional writer, who made a living out of
writing. She is highly acclaimed by Virginia Woolf in her essay A Room of One’s Own in the
following way:

All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn,
which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster
Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.
(Woolf, 2000, p. 50)

Woolf talks about Behn as a prominent literary figure that paved the way for female writers to
speak up their minds. Her writing and publishing on equal terms with men was a milestone in
women’s writing. Similarly, Goreau (1980) suggests “Mrs Behn imposed herself on history
without precedent: she was the first woman to become a professional writer and the
authenticity conjured up by the term ‘professional writer’ and the term ‘women writer’” (p.
69). How come did a female writer in the Restoration era become a professional writer given
that there used to be limited opportunities for women to achieve this? Behn had strong
connections with the monarchy due to her family connection with the Culpeppers. In fact, it is
disputed that she worked as a political spy on behalf of Charles II. She was a Tory writer, and
advocator of Charles II and his brother James II. (Wikipedia) Her politically advantageous
position must have had a great effect on her position as a female writer. Additionally, she
wrote profitable genres and marketable texts. For example, her plays coincided with the time
theatre became the prominent figure in Restoration era. In her plays, she handled themes that
were common to people living in cities, which were economy, marriage and the state.

Despite her politically advantageous position, Behn is still a prominent literary figure in
that she dealt with controversial issues like female sexuality, politics and economy at a time
that women rarely published at all. She faced accusations like ‘whore-writer’. In addition to
the hardship of being a female writer, she also experienced the hardship of being a comedy
writer, a genre which was used mainly by male writers. Comedy was a genre that was looked
down on as being an inferior form of drama. For example, in 1671, Dryden said about comedy
“(...) in its own nature, inferior to all sorts of dramatic writing. Low comedy requires
conversation with the vulgar.” (as cited in Wiseman, 1996, p. 9) Due to the religious
tribulations of the time, drama was expected to deliver moral messages to the audience and
morality was a big issue in plays. However, Behn defended her usage of comedy genre and
argued that plays should not necessarily bear a moral message: “Our latter plays have not
done much more towards the amending of men’s morals, or their Wit, than hath the frequent
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Preaching, which this last age hath been pester’d with.” (as cited in Wiseman, 1996, p. 11) In
her comedies, Behn aimed not to question ethical messages but deal with the controversial
issues of her time like sexual and political intrigue. This added to her reputation at the same
time increasing opposition towards her plays. For example, her play The Luckey Chance was
condemned ‘not fit for ladies’. In the preface to this play, she defends her writing, which can
be accepted as a great inspiration for female writers:

If I must not, because of my sex, have this freedom, but that you will usurp all
to your selves; I lay down my Quill, and you shall hear no more of me, no, not
so much as to make Comparison, because I will be kinder to my Brother of the
Pen, than they have been to a defenseless Woman; for I am not content to write
for a third day only. I value fame as much as if I hade been born a hero; and if
you rob me of that, I can retire from the ungrateful World, and scorn its fickle
Favours. (Todd, p. 59)

Behn’s comedies of intrigue tend to be set in London. Many were city comedies that dealt
with urban life, and presented political, gender and economic struggle in an urban setting,
which was familiar to the audience. On the other hand, her tragedies have a different
structure and foreign setting. Each play includes an insolvable problem, like love between
siblings that ends with a surprise resolution. In Behn’s plays, a dynamic relationship between
the play and the audience is assumed. The audience is presented with the conflict and learns
more than the characters do about the conflict by means of asides. Behn does not give a clear
message, but the audience is expected to deduce it and make their own comment. It is hard to
pinpoint the playwright’s real opinion and argument. Wiseman (1996) comments on Behn’s
plays as:

We can read them for their rich contradictions rather than their coherences and
certainties. Behn’s writings both embody the contradictions of society and, at
the same time, offer a critique of it. As texts emerging in crucial moment in
modernity, they pose problems that were all important when she wrote: of the
nature and authority of the state, of desire, marriage, money and language.(p. 9)

The Rover or The Banish’d Cavaliers is accepted as the most acknowledged example of
Behn’s plays and Restoration comedy. The play includes multiple plot lines, which are about
the love affairs of a group of Englishmen in Naples. Willmore, Frederick and Blunt court
women they meet in the carnival. Angelica is a famous Courtesan that falls in love for the first
time. Florinda and Hellena aim to resist to the life imposed on them and go after their desires.
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Those characters’ roads collide in the carnival time and they go through a series of confusion
and courtship. The play ends with three marriages. Due to popularity of The Rover, Behn
wrote a sequel for the play, which includes Willmore’s life after the marriage. The characters’
relation to each other and their stance in the play can be analyzed from the perspectives of
trickery, marriage and femininity.

The setting of the play is a carnival. Florinda and Hellena take advantage of the carnival by
being disguised as gypsies; thus, they get the chance to approach the man they like. By getting
rid of their identity, they also get rid of the social constraints and the expectations imposed on
them by their family. They can be anyone they like and act as they wish. Under the disguise
of gypsies, Florinda is not the girl to marry a man her brother approves and Hellena is not the
girl to become a nun. Hellena really enjoys the freedom that comes with disguise, as she says:

That which all the World does, as I am told, be as mad as the rest, and take all
innocent Freedom- Sister, you’ll go too, will you not? Come prithee be not sad-
We’ll out-wit twenty Brothers, if you’ll be ruled by me- Come put off this dull
humour with your Clothes, and assume one as gay, and as fanstastick as the
Dress my Cousin Valeria and I have provided, and let’s ramble. (p. 195)

Hellena regards disguise as a form of resistance towards impositions of patriarchy. In return,

trickery and disguise serves Hellena’s aims as she marries the rover and avoids going to a
nunnery in the end. Hellena’s trickery can be juxtaposed with that of Angelica, the famous
courtesan. Angelica was the unobtainable one in the beginning. As her interest in Willmore
turns into love, she becomes predictable and loses her opacity. When she makes compromises
for Willmore, like giving money to him, she stops being an object of desire. On the other
hand, thorugh disguise and trickery Hellena manipulates Willlmore and marries him.
However, trickery and disguise do not benefit the female characters all the time, as it can be
seen in Florinda’s case. Her disguise conceals her identity, and she barely escapes a gang rape
including her brother to rape her first.

While female characters enjoy the freedom of disguise, male characters are expected to
interpret these disguises and make wise decisions in order not to be tricked. Trickery creates
ambiguity in the play. Who is gypsy, prostitude or a lady is not clear. Male characters of the
play are expected to solve the enigma of disguise, masquerade and carnival. Willmore, as his
name suggests, is a man that wants more and more and goes along with the appearance. He
does not give much credit to emotions. He sleeps with Angelica just because she promotes
herself as unobtainable. He accepts marriage with Hellena because she is rich, most probably.
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Therefore, he makes both financial and sexual profit. Blunt, on the other hand, is interested in
women sexually, which leads him to read signs of disguise incorrectly. For example, he
mistakes a prostitute for a lady, he gets robbed of all his clothing.

Since the first part of The Rover ends with three marriages, one of the main themes of the
play is marriage. Although all characters get married with the one they like, those marriages
are not happy marriages in the traditional sense that occurs in the end of comedies. The
couples are formed from the dissolution of unhappy partnerships. Florinda wants to break
away from her brother’s insistence upon her marrying a man she does not love. Hellena also
wants to get away from the nun role given to her by her family. Both characters regard
marriage as a form of escape. As for Willmore, marriage is of no concern. Marriage corrupts
the relationship between a man and woman by forcing them to give promises, as he confesses:

Marriage is as certain a Bane to Love, as lending Money is to Friendship: I'll

neither ask nor give a Vow, tho I could be content to turn Gipsy, and become a
Left-hand Bridegroom, to have the Pleasure of working that great Miracle of
making a Maid a Mother, if you durst venture; 'tis upset Gipsy that, and if I
miss, I'll lose my Labour. (p. 65)

However, he accepts marrying Hellena. He is interested not in her affection, but her fortune. It
is not difficult to guess that he won’t stay faithful to her for long because of his flirtatious and
adventurous nature. In the second part of The Rover, it is revealed that Hellena died after the
first month of the marriage and Willmore is looking for new love interests, having spent all of
Hellena’s money.

Hutner (1993) argues that the first part of the play depicts a traditional marriage in which
both parts act in accordance with their own profit while the second part shows the results of
such an ideology. Through the failed marriage of Hellena and Willmore, Behn denounces
arranged marriages in which “the husband gets rich while the wife stays only within the limits
of her socially prescribed role” (Jung, 2011, p. 58). Marriage is closely related to the financial
concerns. Hellena, Florinda and Valeria look forward to becoming the spouse of an English
cavalier. Similarly, in the second part of The Rover, Ariadne eventually complies with her
parents’ wish and accepts marrying her cousin Beaumond so that the estate and wealth stays
within the family.

Another main issue in The Rover is femininity, which can be analyzed in the female
characters’ stance in the play. Markley (2007) argues that Behn is a pioneering woman writer
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due to her resistance to and protests against “the endemic antifeminism of her time” (p. 141).
By means of subverting ‘proper’ feminine behavior, Behn makes her female characters
ridicule male authority figures. Through disguise and trickery, female characters test male
characters. For example, pretending to be a lady, Lucetta robs Blunt of his clothings, leaving
him naked and fooled.
Behn challenges the accepted female figure of her time by giving voice to the women
marginalized by the society, the prostitutes. Angelica in the first part and La Nuche in the
second part are prostitutes. They are not outcast characters; in contrast, they are powerful
female figures. Though Angelica cannot win Willmore’s love back, she has the guts to
confront him and tell him to actualize his promises. In the first part of The Rover, the virgin
wins over the prostitute, as Hellena is the one that marries Willmore. However, in the second
part, the winning side is the prostitute, La Nuche; in other words, Behn subverts the roles in
the second part of her play. Both the desiring and prostitute woman wins, which is quite
radical in contrast to the traditional ideal female figure. Additionally, by means of disguise,
the lines between the virgin and prostitute are blurred, and both female figures are brought to
the equal terms.
Female will is the central theme of the play. Female characters voice their own desires and
the future they vision for themselves, like men. Florinda, Valeria and Hellena are given the
opportunity to make their own destiny. They freely speak up their own mind, but they have to
find subtle ways to get rid of the role imposed on them by the patriarchal society. Disguise
and carnival give them this opportunity, and they chase their own desires, marital or
economical. Florinda is “designed for a husband”, and Hellena is “designed for a nunnery” (p.
18). However, neither of them accepts those roles. Florinda states “I hate Vincentio, and I
would not have a Man so dear to me as my Brother follow the ill customs of our Country, and
make a Slave of his Sister-and Sir, my Father’s Will, I’m sure, you may divert” (p. 4).
Similarly, Hellena is sure that she will marry the one she likes. She will not give up on the
pleasures of the world and confine herself to a nunnery:
I don’t intend every he that likes me shall have men, but he that I like: I should
have staid in the Nunnery still, if I had lik’d my Lady Abbess as well as she
lik’d me. No, I can thence not (as my wise Brother imagines) to take an eternal
Farewel of the World, but to love and to be belov’d; and I will be belov’d, or
I’ll get one of your Men, so I will. (p. 43)

Hunter (1993) points out that female characters are desiring subjects, not passive objects.
Hellena and Angelica chase after the person like. In contrast to the expected female attitude in
TRICKERY, MARRIAGE AND FEMININITY IN THE ROVER 7

courtship, they are the active part of the relationship as well. Women are not objects but
desiring subjects of love. For instance, Hellena tells Florinda that she will not wait for
Willmore to come to her, but she will go after him. She says “Sister, there's your Englishman,
and with him a handsom proper Fellow- I'll to him, and instead of telling him his Fortune, try
my own” (p. 9). Angelica also states her expectation from men: “No matter, I’m not
displeas’d with their rallying; their Wonder feeds my Vantiy, and he that wishes to buy, gives
me more Pride, than he that gives my Price can make me pleasure” (p. 129). They are not
selfless object of courtship, but active participators with expectations and standards.
In spite of the revolutionary representation of femininity, Behn reflects her time’s outlook
on females as well. Females are represented as a commodity both in public and marriage.
Jung (2011) argues that Hellena and Florinda are seen as objects, “the value of which is
determined by the dowry they can bring to their future husband” (p. 43). Additionally,
Hellena wants to run away from the patriarchal oppression in her family, but in her marriage
she suffers from patriarchy as well. Willmore obtains all of her possession and spends it right
after her death. Ariadne, in the second part, is seen as the assurance of keeping the family
property; that’s why, her parents persuade her to marry her cousin. Lady Galliard, in the
second part, define women’s role in marriage, which is no more than an object of desire and
entertainment for the male:
Have I promis’d then to be, A Whore? A Whore! Oh let me not think of that! A
man’s convenience, his leisure hours, his bed of Ease, To loll and tumble on at
idle times; The Slave, the Hackney of his lawless Lust! A loath’d Extinguisher
of filthy flames, Made use of, and thrown by.- Oh infamous! (p. 228)

Behn’s The Rover has a prominent role in the Restoration stage in that it is a representation
of comedy genre of 17th century and Behn’s playwright traits. It is also important because
themes like trickery, marriage and femininity are handled in this play and a close glimpse
upon the society’s look on such issues is provided. Additionally, The Rover includes Behn’s
cutting-edge views on marriage and femininity that may sound radical to even contemporary
readers.
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References

Behn, A. (1677). The Rover or The Banish’d Cavaliers. Retrieved from:

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/719/rover.pdf?sequence=1

Goreau, A. (1980). Reconstructing Aphra: A social biography of Aphra Behn. New York:
Dial Press.

Hutner, H. (1993). Rereading Aphra Behn. Virginia: University of Virginia Press.

Jung, S. (2011). Marriage and gender in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Eliza Haywood’s Love
in Excess. Universiteit Gent. Unpublished.

Markley, R. (2007). Aphra Behn's The City Heiress: Feminism and the Dynamics of Popular
Success on the Late Seventeenth-Century Stage. Comparative Drama. Vol: 41 (2). pp. 141-
166.

Sullivan, D. (1993). The Female Will in Aphra Behn. Women’s Studies, Vol: 22, pp. 335-347.

Todd, Works, I. pp. xlv-xlvi.

Wiseman, S. J. (1996). Aphra Behn. Devon: Northcote House

Woolf, V. (2000). A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.