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Full Screen View ADULTEROUS WIVES, OBSTREPEROUS WIDOWS, DISDAINFUL DAUGHTERS AND COURTESANS: DISREPUTABLE WOMEN IN APHRA BERN'S COMEDIES by Adris E. Hoyos A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 1994 ADULTEROUS WIVES, OBSTREPEROUS WIOC:WS, DISDAINFUL DAUGHTERS AND COURTESANS: DISREPUTABLE WOMEN IN APHRA BEHN'S COMEDIES by Adris E. Hoyos This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. David Anderson, Department of English and Comparative Literature and has been approved by members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Chairperson, Thesis Advisor ' &,e~7v41~· ( I Chairperson, Department of English and Comparative Literature Arts and Humanities ii ABSTRAcr Author: Adris E. Hoyos Title: Adulterous vhves, Obstreperous Widows, Disdainful Daughters and Courtesans: Disreputable Women in Aphra Behn' s Comedies Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. David Anderson Degree: Master of Arts Year: 1994 In Aphra Behn's comedies, disreputable women rebel against patriarchal authority by refusing to conform to conventional images of femininity. Because they believe in self-determination, they often come into conflict with the men who attempt to impose their will on them. They also come into conflict with the characters in the play who idealize love, because they give rrore importance to practical matters. Although they are criticized within the plays, Behn portrays them as sympathetic because they often help other characters by objecting to forced marriage. They are Behn's most aggressive and assertive female characters, and thus use patriarchy to their own advantage, often to obtain wealth. Disreputable female characters allow Behn to discuss issues of rroney, class, and sex. iii TABLE OF CONI'ENTS Abstract . • • • • • • • • . • . • • • • • • • . • • • . • • • . iii Disreputable Women in Aphra Behn's Comedies ••••..•••••• 1 Adulterous Wives • • • • • • • . • • • . • . • • • . • . • . • • • 12 Obstreperous WidOVJs . • . • . • • • . • • • . • • • • • • • • • 21 Disdainful Daughters . • . • • • . • • • • • . • • • . • • • . 28 Courtesans and Kept Women . • • • • • . • . • • • • • • • . • • • 37 Conclusion . • • . • • . • • . • • • • • • • . • . • • • • • . 48 Works Cited . • • . • . • • . • • . • • • . • • . • • • • . 51 iv Disreputable Women in Aphra Behn's Comedies Aphra Behn's comedies present disreputable women as intelligent, independent individuals who rebel against patriarchal authority. The unfaithful wife, the eccentric widow, the disdainful daughter, and the prostitute all shun women's "conventional attributes: domesticity, softness, chastity, modesty, and fidelity" (Munns 205). As a result, they are criticized in the plays both by the women who do fulfill these expectations and the men who expect them to fulfill them. However, they often redeem themselves in the eyes of the audience and the other characters in the play when they oppose the powerful male figures in the play. But they are not against forced marriages because such marriages are mercenary, or because they believe in the importance of love, but because they believe in self-dE:tennination. "Disreputable" women do not want to overthrow patriarchy; they want to use it to their own advantage to obtain money and raise their standard of living. They are socially ambitious because of their pride. Wealth allows women to sell themselves to a person they choose, and thus to control their sexuality. By objecting to forced marriages, not only do Behn's disreputable women refuse to allow men to use them as exchange, they help prevent other women from becoming objects of exchange. While critics are correct in their claim that some of Behn's female characters are oppressed by patriarchy, her disreputable females do not allow men to limit their actions or to define who they are. Many of these, especially minor characters, have received little attention. 1 They are the most independent and assertive female characters in Behn's comedies. The disreputable female characters show how women were able to use the patriarchal system to their own advantage and to take control of their future, particularly by controlling marriage arrangements. While several critics are correct in asserting that Behn does not strictly adhere to comic convention, but instead uses the form to teach her ideas, they fail to see Behn' s mockery of ranantic love in her comedies. Behn' s disreputable female characters suggest that Behn does not idealize love, but instead sees it as a way in which women are enslaved to men. Behn subversively attacks the idea of romantic love by showing that women who do not aspire to this ideal achieve independence from men, even though by doing so they are criticized by society. Thus, while forced marriage is a prominent theme in many of Behn's plays, the focus is usually one of women wrestling control from men, rather than an idealization of romantic love. The definition of patriarchy as "any social environment that is perceived as hostile to independent activities of women in spheres other than traditional domestic, nurturing roles" cannot be applied to the seventeenth century because women were becoming increasingly independent (Ezell 3). In The Patriarch's Wife, Margaret Ezell laments that much recent criticism on seventeenth-century English women assumes that women were oppressed by the patriarchy. She argues, rather, that patriarchy was only able to remain in place by not imposing tight control over women. She is correct in disagreeing with critics who claim that women's oppression by the patriarchy left women powerless. Yet Ezell goes too far when she makes an argument for domestic matriarchy. Aphra Behn's plays make apparent that women were able to empower themselves but only 2 by struggling with men. Ezell disagrees with modern scholars who use literary texts as evidence of women's oppression; instead, she looks at conduct manuals, biographies, and other types of writing to show that many women were able to escape the limitations of the patriarchal system. Although Ezell argues that literary texts cannot be used as evidence of women's oppression, Behn's portrayal of relationships between men and women must have been realistic enough for the audience of the time to have believed them. Ezell also claims that there was little open rebellion because patriarchy allowed women power over their household. Behn's plays, however, suggest that the reason there was little open rebellion against patriarchy was that many women were able to use subversive means to rebel or to acquire wealth or property. Patriarchy did not impose tight control over women, but patriarchy did attempt to define the way women should behave. Behn's plays suggest that patriarchal structures did attempt to oppress women who did not conform to traditional images of femininity. They also show that many women met with criticism when they did not conform to passive roles. Ezell, however, is correct in asserting that too much writing about the seventeenth century focuses on women's exploitation by the patriarchy; this is particularly true of criticism about Behn. Several critics claim that women in Behn's plays are exploited by capitalism, because they are bought and sold in the marriage market or exploited by having to sell their bodies. Both Munns and Lussier see men controlling the exchange of women. Munns claims that in this society "women were the objects of masculine exchange and signs of male power" (200). Similarly, Lussier describes the exchange of women in Behn's plays as if it met with no resistance. "Women are objects of exchange, coins stamped with 3 the imprint of men" (380). Lussier argues that in Behn's plays both men and women sell themselves like commodities for money and power, although men are ultimately in control of the exchanges. vfuen Lussier says that prostitution is as degrading as rnarriage because women are being used by men, he does not consider the women who refuse to allow men power over them. Instead of being passive "objects," disreputable women manipulate economic exchanges. Brown and Prescott also claim that Behn's female characters are passive "objects." Both insist that Behn is sympathetic towards disreputable women because they have to suffer under society's "reduction of human relationships to economic exchanges," whereby a woman's actions are "justified in relation to the general .materialism of her whole depicted world" (Brown 61-62). Brovvn assumes that romantic values are better than economic ones: Our evaluations of and expectations for Behn's independent women are directed by our recognition of the pressures of a corrupt, materialistic world upon the relatively helpless individual; society operates in such a way that if this noble woman (Angellica) fails to conform and attempts to substitute romantic for economic values, she will be broken. (60-61) Prescott similarly believes Behn presents the prostitute and the unchaste woman as victims, not transgressors. Behn condemns "society . for the devastating economic circumstances which produce such women" (507A). But Behn does not depict the horrible social conditions of prostitutes; instead, she portrays courtesans and kept women who are
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