With the restoration of Charles II to the throne following the fall of the Commonwealth and Puritanism came a surge of sexual and artistic freedom in England. This new libertine ideology brought with it not only the reemergence of the theatre, but and a society that embraced freedom of sexuality and thought in a way that was unprecedented. It is this new libertine society that provided a context for the writings of Aphra Behn. While Behn observed men like rakish Charles II and the effeminate Earl of Rochester enjoying England’s newfound open mindedness, she was forced to navigate, or rather circumnavigate, the limitations that remained in place for women. In a time when actresses were first appearing on stage and Charles II’s mistresses were regarded practically as pop culture icons, women were finally breaking out of the private sphere and being thrust into the public eye.1 While women, and even their sexualities were at last being celebrated outside of the domestic sphere, it was far from on their own terms, and entirely relative to the roles they filled for men. While the society so often characterized by the court of Charles II was on the whole highly performative, women were expected to perform in a much more specific way than their male counterparts. On and off stage women were expected to conform to a limited selection of character types that started with wife and ended with whore, and the spectrum between was narrow if not nonexistent.
Behn is remarkable because as a spy for the British crown and the first woman to make a living as a writer, she circumnavigated her gender and claimed an identity previously only thought possible for a man. In her 1677 play The Rover, Behn laments that her female characters are trapped w...
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... Behn Studies. Ed. Janet Todd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 15–29.
Pearson, Jaqueline. "Gender and Narrative in the Fiction of Aphra Behn." The Review of English Studies. no. 165 (1991).
Pecheco, Anita. "Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn's "The Rover"." ELH. no. 2 (1998): 323-345.
Todd, Janet. Oroonoko, the Rover and Other Works. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
Todd, Janet. Aphra Behn Studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. London, UK: Rutgers University Press, 1996: Introduction.
Todd, Janet. Oxford Dictionary of Natural Biography, ed., s.v. "Behn, Aphra (1640?– 1689)." Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Webster, Jeremy. Performing Libertinism in Charles II's Court: Politics, Drama, Sexuality. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Both Vanity Fair and A Room of One’s Own explore and challenge the idea that women are incapable of creating a name and a living for themselves, thus are completely dependent on a masculine figure to provide meaning and purpose to their lives. Thackeray, having published Vanity Fair in 1848, conforms to the widely accepted idea that women lack independence when he makes a note on Ms Pinkerton and remarks “the Lexicographer’s name was always on the lips of the majestic woman… [He] was the cause of her reputation and her fortune.” The way that a man’s name was metaphorically “always on the lips of the majestic woman” and how he was the source of “her reputation and her fortune” expresses this idea, especially through Thackeray’s skilful use of a sanguine tone to communicate that this cultural value, or rather inequality, was not thought of as out of the ordinary. From viewing this in a current light and modernised perspective...
According to Sherrie A. Inness, “The Captive was hauled by critics as the first play on the American stage to deal openly with what one reviewer called a “repulsive abnormality.” Ten years prior, God of Vengeance was scorned for offending rabbis, Jewish men and women’s religion and abusing the significance of the Torah. Critics and reviews failed to deliver their remarks on the intimate lesbian love, but in The Captive, the lesbian undertones are concealed and carried out in a strategic fashion, yet these moments were censored and triggered. Due to these moments where the acts of lesbianism were not apparent, it was deemed with obscurity, causing the play to fall short overall. Similar to God of Vengeance, The Captive was confronted with “obscenity charges in the United States, and after a run of less than five months, the play was raided and closed down by police” (Inness 304). With this framework in mind, my case study is not diminished by the greater public opinion, rather Edouard Bourdet’s strategic approach to lesbianism and the way in which is portrayed in society juxtaposed the emergence of lesbianism in the United States in the early part of the twentieth
1) Frith, Wendy, "Sex, smallpox and seraglios: a monument to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu," Femininity and Masculinity in the Eighteenth-Century Art and Culture ed. Gill Perry and Michael Rossington, (Manchester University Press, 1994), 99-122.
...ked “the court, the church, the aristocracy, the academies, the salons, and the monarchy itself” through the lens of sexual sensationalism (Hunt, pg. 91). Sex in society was recognized as a political satire; however views that sex was to be shared privately between man and woman still lingered, for the actions of Marie Antoinette were scandalous for she was breaking the common view of proper sexual conduct.
Howard, Jean. "Cross-dressing, The Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern Eng- land." Shakespeare Quarterly 39 (1988): 418-40.
In the 1800’s, women were considered a prize to be won, an object to show off to society. They were raised to be respectable women whose purpose was to marry into a higher social class in order to provide for their family. These women were stuck in a social system which seemed impossible to escape. Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, saw these barriers and wrote one of the most controversial plays of his time, “A Dolls House”. In his play, Ibsen argues the importance of opposite sex equality in marriage by using his character, Nora Helmer, to bring to light how degrading the roles of women were in the 1800’s.
The History of Feminine Fiction:Exploring Laura Runge’s Article, Gendered Strategies in the Criticism of Early Fiction
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, November 1985.
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
The character analysis of Mary Anne Bell in comparison and contrast to Martha and Elroy Berdahl implores the audience to consider the idea that gender is not inherent.
Over the centuries, writers have used literature to show the societal status and the mind sets of the people in their era. ‘Antigone’, a Greek tragedy, and ‘A Doll’s House’, a highly controversial drama, inhibit the same thematic approach, depicting the oppression and submissiveness of women in male-dominated society and how they overcome their obstacles with firm will, inspiring millions of audiences from then till now. By Antigone’s character, Sophocles portrays a figure through whom he can express his faith in feminism in the 4th century. Likewise, Ibsen’s concerns about the position of women during the 19th century are beautifully breathed to life in ‘A Doll’s House’ through Nora’s transformation from a doll-like puppet to a human. Both of the writ...
In Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Look Back in Anger, the women characters play distinct roles in the dramas. However, the type of roles, the type of characters portrayed, and the purpose the women’s roles have in developing the plot and themes vary in each play. As demonstrated by The Importance of Being Earnest and Look Back in Anger, the majority of women’s roles ultimately reflect that women in British society were viewed to be unequal to men in love and in relationships and generally the weaker sex, emotionally, physically and intellectually. However, I have found an exception to this standard in the play Arcadia, in which Thomasina Coverly plays the role of a young genius.
In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the female protagonists of the play, Beatrice and Hero, and Blanche and Stella, are submitted to battles against misogyny. Unlike the stereotypically submissive Elizabethan woman, Beatrice is ready to be ‘a man’ (Act 4.1.315) for the sake of her wronged cousin Hero and duel against ‘Count Comfit’ (Act 4.1.314). Blanche, while fighting against Stanley as ‘he advances’ (Scene Three, page 41) towards, and hurt, Stella, became relatable to a modern day audience when fighting against Domestic Violence. These women challenge the status quo of their eras, whether it is effective or not.
In her play Widow Ranter, Aphra Behn takes quite a solid approach in disrupting the social order by empowering women. She presents the women with characteristics of authoritative figures. Set in 17th century Virginia, Behn use Bacon's Rebellion and the stereotypes of a developing colonial society as a foundation for developing gender politics at the time. Her play also attempts to justify the Emipre’s imposition of their social hierarchy within the Virginian society criticizing the wrongful seizure of power by those without the authority or nobility to do so.
Aphra Behn’s “England’s first professional female author “ has been a very controversial figure in terms of literary criticisms throughout the centuries . The plays she wrote during the restoration period were hugely popular on the stage , and her fiction and poetry also enjoyed success , though on a much smaller scale . However , under rigid Victorian standards , her work essentially disappeared from literary discussion and did not re-emerge until the mid – 1900’s : in the 40’s Behn’s work was “little known , since she had lived under a cloud of Victorian disapproval for her erotic writing and her allegedly licentious way of life . However , by the end of world war II , “the kind of feminine interest that now gives importance to Aphra Behn as a pioneer in women’s professionalism was beginning to emerge “. Behn used her work as societal commentary , addressing politics , sex , money , relationships , power , virtue and ideals but it seems to me that the major focus of her writing is on gender roles .