Women's situation represented of Aphra Behan's "The Rove"

        P-101 Assignment

Name-Kishan Jadav

Paper- History of the English Literature

Topic :- women situation represented of Aphra Behan's "The Rove"   

Roll no-11

Enrollment no-3069206420200008

Email id- jadavkishan55555@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-1)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

                Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 Topic :- women's  situation represented of Aphra Behan's "The Rover"   

Introduction:-

           Aphra Behn was the first woman to start writing something in literature.  She was a woman so it can be said that she has a very special attitude towards woman.  He was well aware of the plight of women in his time and he has tried to portray the situation in his work.  Aphra Behn's "The Rover" is very famous.  This is how all the events happen by hiding one's identity within one play.  In which the Carnival Festival has been used as a single symbol.  In this festival, everyone wears a mask on their face and enjoys dancing and partying.  So that one person cannot be identified with another.  Aphra Behn was working as a spy for king  but as he did not get proper support he started his own writing work.  And he wrote the first work The Rover. The King liked this work very much. So he performed it on stage many times.  One of the reasons behind the dislike may also be that women have been portrayed as inferior within this work.  Because of the patriarchal society at that time, the status of women was considered low.  Which is also seen in today's times.  The women were ruled by men.  The women could not go against men, women were not given freedom.

 Women's  situation :-

               There are so many female characters in this play Hellena, Valeria,  Florida, Angelic, Lucetta,  Bianca.Shown in an article in which the critic says that.Critics have often remarked that in Aphra Behn's The Rover, ladies act like whores and whores like ladies. '  At this level, the play presents a dramatic world dominated by the two principal patriarchal definitions of women, but in which the boundary separating one category from the other has become blurred.  In the case of both Florinda, the play's quintessential "maid of quality," and the prostitute Angellica Bianca, the role reversals arise out of contrasting bids to move from subjection into subjectivity.  It is Florinda's rebellion against the commodification of forced marriage that destabilizes her position within patriarchy, while Angellica Bianca's self-construction as Petrarchan mistress charts the attempt of a woman excluded from the marital marketplace to turn her beauty into an alternative form of power.So the women of that time had different characteristics which can be seen as follows

 1.Women's  Freedom 

              The big question is whether women were given freedom in both our times.  In response to which we can say in the context of this play that women were not given freedom at that time.  Because even then there was a patriarchal society.  Which we see as its character.  Helena wants to be a nun herself but her father and her brother don't let her be a nun.  She wants to marry Don Antonio.  When Helena doesn't want to get married.  Perhaps this is the only thing that shows us that women are not free.  She cannot make her own decisions.  He has to take care of his family.  However this is one way that women are now convinced and ready to make their own decisions from their own ideas.  It seems that she sees herself as a different woman.  Who can now make their own decisions.  This suggests that in a patriarchal society women are always working under men.  But now he wants his own freedom which is somewhat portrayed in this play.  The other thing to note here is Angelica.  Which makes all its own decisions.  Even if his work is bad.  She does not like to work under any man and does not want others to rule over her. It seems that woman will be somewhat independent.  But falling in love with Willmore himself, he also loses his freedom.  And follow him to inhabit it.  The women themselves were free to choose their favorite character but their families were depriving them of this freedom which we see from the character of Helena and Florida.  The other characters Angelica and Lucetta made their own decisions and enjoyed their own freedom, but they also relied on men.  So at that time women were not given complete freedom.  Which is still a big question today?

2.Women's  Beauty 

             The play depicts Florida as a beautiful woman inside.  She is a much more beautiful character than all the women.  Beauty is the symbol of that which attracts everyone's attention.  There are many concepts of definitions of beauty that individuals are always attracted to what is beautiful then there is a source of nature or something beautiful within people.  So within the play, Florida has a role as a woman of beauty.  Many characters are attracted to her because of her beauty.  She loves Belvil.  And to settle it she faces a lot of situations within this play.  On the other hand, many men attack her because she is beautiful.  She faces a lot of difficulties to avoid it all.  There are many attempts to rape her but she tries to escape.  Perhaps the author is showing that it is not a crime to be beautiful but with beauty you have to protect yourself.  If you are beautiful, you are more likely to have such incidents.  Which we can see even today.  So Aphra Behn in this play shows how big a risk women are in terms of their beauty.

3.Women's  Position 

            Aphara Behn shows in this play what the place of women was at that time.  The play has many female characters including Helena, Florida, Valeria, Lucetta, Angelica.  The position of all these women is portrayed in a somewhat different way.  Hellena, Florinda and Valeria are portrayed as ideal women.  Who are high class women and have a wealth of understanding in terms of beauty and money.  They are able to live a good life.  He gets this honor to some extent in the society.  Even though he does not have freedom, he has a name in the society.  Angelica, on the other hand, portrays Lucetta as a bad female character in society.  Who pursues prostitution at his own discretion and will.  So her place in society as a bad woman is not considered worthy of respect.  He does this business for his own sustenance.  And it is not bad for him to do this work even though he is not given a high place in the society he is considered as a low kind of people.  These types of women are very common in the society.  Who are doing this business out of their own compulsion.  For their own sustenance, to run their own house, when they have been ostracized from society, when they have been kicked out by their own family. Such women are engaged in prostitution.  He wants to love another even though no one accepts him.  Which also appears in this play.

4.Women's  Love 

           Inside this play by Aphra Behn, many characters are seen falling in love with each other.  But the big question here is, did they really love each other?  That they are connected to each other because of some other circumstance.  So the answer we get when we read this play is that these characters are so confused with each other that the real reason comes at the end of the play.  In this play, love is seen in one character and lust is seen in the other character.  Such as the rakish Willmore uses the ambiguity between love and lust to his advantage, vowing love when he actually only feels physical lust. Angelica begins the play preferring lust to love (and profiting from the lust her beauty inspires), and suffers greatly when she finally succumbs to the second emotion. Hellena, for all her boldness, wishes for love rather than lust, and succumbs to Willmore’s advances only after she is convinced hat he loves for her, rather than simply lusting. For the more traditional Florinda, lust is dangerous, making formerly honorable men threatening and dangerous.Angelica is a prostitute woman.  But at the same time she is also a woman so she loves Willmore from the heart.  But Willmore does not acknowledge his love.  He likes the beautiful and rich Helena from him.  Because she is a woman with a high position in the society.  Helena also loves Willmore.  So in this play the love of a woman with a bad name is not considered valid in a society.  No one accepts it.  Breaking all her own rules she loved Willmore but Willmore did not appreciate her love because she was a prostitute woman.  In which Aphra Behn shows that love also needs to be a beautiful and famous woman.

Conclusion:-

          Aphra Behn was a woman.  So he could understand women’s feelings and well.  It seems from this play that the atrocities of the women of his time must have been witnessed before his eyes.  Perhaps they have expressed their own feelings in this play.  However from this play one comes tomorrow that the situation of women at that time will be very different.  Women will face many difficulties.  She has portrayed different situations of women in this play. The same situation and condition of women is seen even today.  Which was many years before today.  The play depicts the conditions of women and their problems.  In which both rich women and lower class oppressed women are clearly seen in this play.  Which Aphra Behn has tried to portray through different characters.

Words:-1600

Reference :-

Behn, Aphra.  The Rover.  Restoration Comedy.  Ed. Trevor Griffiths and Simon Trussler.  London: New Hern Books, 2005.  129–224.

“Portrayal of Restoration Women in The Rover.” Magnificata Journal of Undergraduate Nonfiction, 2014, commons.marymount.edu/magnificat/portrayal-of-restoration-women-in-the-rover.

Staves, Susan. “Behn, Women, and Society.” The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn. By Derek Hughes and Janet M. Todd. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2004. 12-28. Print.