Paper : 101 Assignment :
Themes of the play 'Rover'
Name - Hina Parmar
Batch - M.A. Sem 1 (2022-2024)
Enrollment no - 40692064202221
Roll no - 11
Subject code - 22392
Paper no - 101
Paper - Literature of the Elizabeth and Restoration periods
Email address - hinaparmar612@gmail.com
Submitted to - Smt.S.B. Gardi Department of English M.K.B.U.
Date of submission - 7 th November, 2022
Themes of the play 'Rover'
This blog is an assignment on paper no - 101 Literature of the Elizabeth and Restoration periods. This assignment is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir H.O.D of English Department M.K.B.U.
The play 'Rover' is one of Aphra Behn's most successful and celebrated play. The play 'Rover' is a comedy which is divided in two parts with subtitles 'The Banish'd cavaliers'. Part one was published in 1677, and second part was published in 1681. This play follows English cavaliers as they travel through Madrid and Naples, experiencing the experience of falling in and out of love. This play is a revision of Thomas Kilgrews play 'Thomaso, or The Wanderer(1664)'.
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a poet, traveler, novelist and successful female English playwright, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. She was one of the first English women who earned by her writing. She broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors.
She has the ability of switching literary genres seamlessly and brilliantly, for writing plays in prose. In respect, spender states that-
" I suspect that the charges of convention, her habit of turning the value system upside down, and her irreverence for all things sacred".
Her novel ' The Nun or the fair vow Breaker' which was published in 1689, contains an admixture of reality, fantasy, tragedy and romance, and her Behns adaptation of this unique narrative strategy contains both authenticity and realism. Spender stressed the fact that-
"Aphra Behn wrote no novel of the woman gets man variety. Her characters of both were prone to pursue perilous parts in the name of love, but there was little if the country loved tradition in their adventures."
She also traveled to the west indies where she met new people and explored a different culture. It is notable to state that Spender puts the emphasis on Aphra Behn as being the first novelist who wrote thirteen novels before to be the first ever to be given birth,which is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe.
She is the first woman who began to write in prose. One of her most successful commercial works is "Oroonoko" (1688). This work has themes like gender, race, slavery and colonialism. Oroonoko tells the story of an enslaved African prince whom Behn claimed to have known in South America, and The play 'Rover' depicts the adventures of a small group of English cavaliers.She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's 'A room of one's own'-
"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."
Themes of the play 'Rover'
The play 'Rover' is a dark comedy that mixes themes of and rape with comic way. This play contains the objection of its author about the vulnerability of women in Restoration society. Perhaps it ironically appeals to the interests of the audience by putting women in morally compromising situations.
Here are Themes of the play-
Marriage and courtship
Prostitution
Gender Roles
Love vs Lust
Deceit and Disguise
Class and Money
Wit and Language
Women's struggles
Violence
Social liberty in the play
Marriage and Courtship-
Women in seventeenth century Europe had many few options in marriage and courtship. They couldn't make any decision about Their marriage, their parents made the final decision about whom they would marry and also they couldn't initiate relations with any men, without their parents permission. Families of that time used marriages to seal business and political relationships, ignoring the daughters' interests. Most families would invest their dowry money in the eldest daughter, vying to marry her into the best family possible. Once married to a man whom she neither knew nor liked, she became his property and she became a baby "machine" until it became the reason for her death.
In this play The spanish sisters Florinda and Hellena are dominated by their brother Pedro. Pedro is confident that he can force to marry his powerful friend Antonio and gives the cost of a dowry for Hellena by sending her back to her nunnery. Neither Florinda nor Hellena wants to obey Pedros wishes; they just try to enjoy a day and night of freedom before their fates are sealed. At the end they both marry the man they love and the freedom to marry him is like a blind luck. Here Behn explores the roles available to Restoration women and men, and their idea that marriage was an outmoded institution.
The plays most powerful voice is Angelica, who sees prostitution as a better choice than marriage. Hellena loves Willmore and she believes that she has won him through her wit. But both women prove a source of wealth to willmore.
Prostitution
Women who don't have Man and with no education and have no money, of their own for them prostitution was a way that they van be independent and to avoid downright poverty. Across Europe, trade in female virtue was tolerated by the public and by the church. The social and moral climate of Restoration England explains the importance of the beautiful Angellica to the plot of the "Rover". In this play Angellica was very rich prostitute, she loves Willmore and she sleeps with him without taking any charges, and she also wants to get him but she get failed at the end. She represents the idealized romanticized version of prostitution.
Gender roles -
The characters of the rover represent traditional gender roles found in comedies of the Restoration period. In this play there are men like wilmore, who seek pleasure and on the other side there are men like Belvelle, who are honorable and seek to protect women. Women like Florinda. In the play there were also the dishonorable women, like Angelica and Lucetta, who seek to ensnare men.
Here Hellena is an example of exploration she describes as marriage, as all honorable women do, and she also does so. The character of Willmore reveals problems with traditional gender roles, his lustful antics charming and hilarious vulnerability reveals flaws with traditional femininity. She is a perfect woman, but she is unprotected from men, men with bad intentions. On the other hand, the character of Angelica is problematic, because she is a "Wicked" woman.
Love and Lust-
In this play the line between love and lust is a blurry one, but an incredibly vital question within the play. In general, in this play men prefer lust while women seek out love, in this play the character Willmore has ambiguity between love and lust to his advantage. Angelic begins the play preferring lust to love, but she suffers a lot, when her second emotion is killed. Hellena wishes for love rather than lust and the more traditional character is Florinda. She thought that lust was dangerous. In this play characters are largely helpless against the forces of both love and lust.
Deceit and Disguise-
The play creates a strong connection between disguise and love this play takes at carnival time, characters appear with mast and disguises. Hellena , Florinda, and Veleria are wearing gypsy costumes. The play is in disguise, since it is used by moral and immoral characters.
Class and Money-
In this play many characters run for money. The cavaliers constantly think that they do not have enough money, Don Pedro wants her sister to marry where he wants, he picks a husband for his sister based upon fortune. The character of Angelica is also obsessed with money. She put her beautiful picture up for the highest bidder and Customers who can pay more. She belongs to the upper class and with her money she can do what she wants. The theme of money and love often becomes intertwined in the play, as characters speak about purchasing love, or giving each other credit.
In this play Class creates deeper issues. This is the main thing to decide whether or not a woman is worthy or respected. Willmore attempts to rape Florinda, he does so because he dont know that she is a. Able to attract Willmore because she dressed in a law class costume, and showed noble manners. In this way Angelica will never be truly valued because st all way she is still prostitute.
Wit and Language-
The obsession with Wit and language reflects the atmosphere of 17th century England. Most plays judge based on their language rather than the uniqueness of their plots or the morality of the lessons.
The character's constant weight in the play Blunt is a figure of fun as soon as the audience hears his dull, ploding speech, he becomes even more so when he foolishly allows himself to be taken in by the Clever Lucetta. Willmore is constructed immorally, when he meets Hellena they get attracted not because of their looks but their wits perfectly matched.
Women's struggles-
In this place every female character struggles against the constraints of their social goals. Florida refuses to marry someone chosen for her and she escapes her brother and her father in order to be with Bellville. Hellena and Florinda both encourage each other toward bold actions. Hellena urges Florinda-
"Come prithee be not sad we'll go out wit twenty brothers, if you'll be runned by me."
These women openly express opinions on their restrictive lot in life and take action to change it.
Violence and Immoral behavior-
Violence is everywhere in the play, there are different types of violence depicted. Most of male characters use violence as a solution to their issues. The thing about violence is that two persons usually agree to the duel and have similar weapons to carry it out with. In this play Petro and Antonio duel over who Florinda will marry with both of them equally matched. The immoral behavior was a product of the Restoration period. In the play man flirts with woman for instance Willmore flirts with Hellena and the Prostitutes such as Lucetta who goes around seducing man like Blunt and cheats them. This is a clear example of immoral behavior activities.
Comedy of manners or Restoration comedy have satirized the upper class society and Angellica Bianca belongs to the upper class where she sleeps with Willmore, which according to the puritans will be immoral and the same action goes to Willmore as well.
men in the 'Rover' constantly experience their power over women through violence like assault and harassment.
Social liberty in the play-
The Restoration period breakaway morality. In this play there were festivals and celebrations which were restricted during the puritan age. The play is set in the carnival stage and Florinda is in quest for their true love. Many men and women during the Restoration period enjoyed life by engaging themselves into infidel relationships, and they can also do what they want. In carnival they have all rights to do such things. They wear masks to hide their face,they can interact with anyone whom they want and make relations as much as they want.
The social liberty was at its highest peak in this era where characters such as Willmore who is the Rover of the play, he was lustful person, he fell in love with any good looking girl, He love with Hellena but he was disloyal when he saw Angelica Bianca, and seduces her and as Blunt who was completely engaged themselves with her sense of true Liberty of the age. Blunt is a man who was a victim of cheating and deception. He fell in love with loyal woman Lucetta who turned out to be a cheater.
This shows that Men and women enjoyed social liberty to a great extent during the Restoration period.
Conclusion -
To conclude we could say that the play 'Rover' explores issues of marriage and courtship, prostitution, womens struggles, gender roles, love and lust, class and money, and many more. To follow her contemporaries she treats these issues with a certain way. Her most characters are predominantly self serving and also the female characters are complex and intelligent women whose value is not compromised by the sexual desire share with the male characters. That's how Aphra Behn satire is not directed toward women but toward hypocritical society.
[Words - 2116]
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