NAME: PRERANA SARKAR

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ENGLISH HONOURS

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COURSE: CC7

FEMALE CHARACTERS IN “THE ROVER”

It is inordinately interesting and amusing to think that expressions of human interaction and

complex social critique can be inferred from seemingly frivolous prospects. There are

possibly few other examples that validate this expounding than Aphra Behn’s (1640-1689)

seminal work The Rover or The Banished Cavaliers (1677).

One of the foremost examples of the dramatic genre of the Restoration Comedy, The Rover

was in fact a revision of Thomaso or The Wanderer (1664) of the playwright Thomas

Killigrew. Taking into consideration of her strictly royalist views, it can be also determined

that her negative portrayal of the puritans is synchronous with the systemic “exile” faced by

the cavalier forces during the period of the infamous English interregnum period, due to, the

consecutive approximations of proto republican governments under the commonwealth of

England .

Along with the subjective portrayal of various social issues of the time, masked by the

amorous pursuit of the central characters, The Rover also contains a unique perspective on the

prospect of the women and their lives at the time of the interregnum period. Subsequently,

the presence of multiple female characters with a somewhat equitable agency also ensured

the insemination of a uniquely feminine perspective of the turbulent social atmosphere of

Behn’s time.

Set in the Carnival time in Naples, Behn’s unique depiction of female aspirations around

marriage, love, empowerment, and freedom from social constraints is thus aptly displayed in

the guise of Rover’s female characters:

Hellena

Behn exposes the struggle of self-identification, specifically in terms of faith with the

character of Hellena, a noble by birth, who is described in the dramatis personae as a ‘gay

young woman designed for a nun’. Hellena’s rogue-like actions, then, serve as a levelling of

the playing field between the text’s young aristocratic men and women. Her antics throughout

Behn’s play – her disguises, sharp wit, and clever scheming – all paint her as a rogue figure.

Hellena differs from her female counterparts in the play in that she decides to disguise herself

not to flee or to pursue her beloved, but to forge her own path of worldly experiences and
pleasures. Shattering the stereotypical image of a high-class Puritan woman, she asked: “Why

must we be either guilty of fornication or murder if we converse with you men? And is there

no difference between left to love me, and leave to lie with me?” As the plot progresses, she

repeatedly uses different masks and disguises (such as a gypsy girl and even a page boy) in

order to ensnare her faithless beloved, even as she repeatedly fends off his attempts to seduce

her. Hellena’s libertine values come to light when she meets her male counterpart Willmore

and eventually succeeds in wooing him only to herself on her conditions.

Florinda

In contrast to her sister Hellena, Florinda was depicted as a meeker character encompassing a

realist image of the women in the Restoration period who struggled to break free from the

shackles of patriarchy and gaining their agency in marriage. Despite the softer approach,

there was a hinted firmness in her character as she used the disguise of a masquerade to unite

with her lover Belville and planned to elope and break the norms set by her brother and father

for her marriage in a noble family. Even though through the progress of the play Florinda was

menaced by Ned Blunt and Willmore at various instances, she stays upright brave and

eventually unites with her lover.

Angelica Bianca

The third most major character in The Rover, Aphra Behn uses the character of Angellica

Bianca for representation and agency of women in the Restoration period. By profession a

courtesan, Angelica Bianca has been used to represent the ability of women to capture a man

through beauty and lust. Through this character, the background of the Restoration period has

been aptly depicted when prostitution as a business, gave women value and freedom in terms

of validation and money respectively if not social reputation. Even though Angellica Bianca

was a depiction confident, decisive and someone who was aware of her self-worth, she ended
up falling prey to the trickery of Willmore that emotionally drove her to pursue measures of

violence (instead of masks unlike Hellena and Florinda) to claim her beloved’s affection

Lucetta

Unlike Angelica Bianca’s position as a courtesan, the comparative social standing of a

character like Lucetta, attributed to being a “whore”, would reduce her prospective clientele

to commoners, thus also reducing her overall freedom and means of expression while also

consequently leaving her all but exposed to exploitation. However, Aphra Behn’s portrayal of

the character of Lucetta takes an unexpected turn from this predicament in the form of a free-

willed woman who promptly realizes her physical worth and chooses willingly to further

utilize that worth to ensure her survival and prosperity by alluring the somewhat ignoble

character of Ned blunt, into surrendering all of his financial assets instead of allowing herself

to be exploited any further. Thus Lucetta becomes a forceful, potent lance through the

chainmail of socio-cultural norms, allowing her the freedom to realize and possibly fulfill her

aspirations as a woman.

Valeria

Cousin to Hellena and Florinda, Valeria engages in the masquerade to disguise her

noblewoman demeanor to enjoy the thrill of the Carnival. She is a character of quick wit as

she helps Florinda to escape from her confinement and eventually saves Florinda to be

recognized by her brother Don Pedro.

Moretta

Servant to Angellica Bianca, a courtesan to less wealthy patrons, Moretta, is a blunt character

that recognizes the deception in Willmore’s promises towards Angellica. She recognizes and

intends to drive away Willmore but eventually fails to do so.

Callis

The governess to Hellena and Florinda, Callis is a sympathetic character that helps the sister

deceiving their brother so as to enjoy the carnival in which the play is set in.

 Each of these characters displays a potent struggle to assert a unique identity and self-worth

without the involvement of their male counterparts, in a societal structure of a predominantly

male dominated Restoration era Naples. This was done along with the celebrated sisterhood

and female expression of feelings and desires and mocked the rigidity of heteronormative

gender roles which were blurred in the carnival festivity where identities were unrevealed and

cross-dressing, wizarding were used as tools to create bewilderment for smoother

transgression.. Behn covers the topics of marriage, self-identity and social representation in

relation to the Restoration age. Through these elements, ‘The Rover’ earns itself a critical

part in the historical portrayal of Restoration theatre.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Beach, Adam R. ‘Carnival Politics, Generous Satire, and Nationalist Spectacle in

Behn’s The Rover’. Eighteenth-Century Life 28, no. 3 (2004): 1–19.

 Black, Jeremy. Italy and the Grand Tour. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

 Boebel, Dagny. ‘In the Carnival World of Adam’s Garden: Roving and Rape in

Behn’s Rover’. In Broken Boundaries: Women and Feminism in Restoration Drama,

edited by Katherine M. Quinsey, 54–70. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,

1996.

 Warneke, Sara. Images of the Educational Traveller in Early Modern England. New

York: Brill, 1995.