I have nearly finished writing my essay on Behn’s “The Rover” but the more I think about the characters, interactions and situations, the more I want to include—which makes for a rather incoherent essay.
I keep revisiting something that I
learned during a recent Shakespeare course which has thrown an interesting
twist on how I interpret plays from the 16 and 1700s. The expectation for women during this time
period was that a good woman had to be three things; obedient, silent and
chaste. If a woman was not obedient to
her husband, father or brothers or if she was not a silent, private woman then
it was assumed that she was not chaste either.
The failure or decision of a woman to refuse to be obedient, silent and
chaste was a common theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays but there are many
instances in “The Rover” when the women do not fulfill or actively flout their
social guidelines.
In the
first scene of “The Rover” Florinda and Hellena, two sisters who have been
condemned to an undesirable marriage and a nunnery, respectively, contemplate
their situations and conceive a plan where they would journey to the local
Carnival in an attempt to be rid of their obligations. When Pedro, brother to the girls, enters the
scene, Florinda and especially Hellena argue with him about the injustice of
their future marital (Hellena will be married to the church) imprisonment. Florinda says to her brother, “ 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 later defends herself against her marriage
of convenience saying, “Let him [the old Don Vincentio] consider my youth,
beauty and fortune, which ought not to be thrown away on his age and jointure”
(I, ii, 76-78, 93-95).
When
Hellena begins to speak with Pedro, I always read the scene as though it has
quickly become heated while Florinda’s previous lines seem like witty and
sarcastic jabs at society’s gender double standards. Hellena, a young virgin, does not shy from
the nitty-gritty details of married life and describes the disappointment of
young women who are forced into marriages for money and position. Hellena seems to gain momentum as she
describes the “moth-eaten bed chamber, with furniture in fashion in the reign
of King Sancho the First; the bed, that which his forefathers lived and died in”
(I, ii, 124-126) and the actions of the old husband, “the giant [who] stretches
itself, yawns and sighs a belch or two, loud as a musket, throws himself into
bed, and expects you in his foul sheets” (I, ii, 137-140). Then entire time
Hellena is berating arranged marriages her brother, the male ‘authority’ attempts
to silence her with frequent interjections of “Very well” and “Have you done
yet?”, after which he eventually dismisses her and tells Callis, the governess
to keep an eye on her.
Scene 1 is an
excellent example of women failing to meet the standards of silence and
obedience, and because of their early conversation about Belvile and meeting
young men at Carnival, their chastity or at least the innocence of their
thoughts are questioned by the audience.
Though neither Hellena or Florinda make themselves appear as
though they are prostitutes, Florinda is nearly raped, or seduced as the men
call it, and Hellena appears multiple times in the sensual guise of a man over
the course of the play which makes it seem as though men are unable to see the
difference between chaste women and loose women if they do not conform exactly
to society’s expectations of what a woman should look and behave like.
Hmmm… much to ponder.
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