Restoration Period.

Fantomia.

           

" I have him always raving, wild, impatient, longing, dying. --- O all neglected wives and fond abandoned nymphs would take this method --- men would be caught in their snare, and have no influence on our weeping wailing sex!" (2754)

            In this passage from Eliza Haywood’s novella “Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze” the author is making a satirical comment about the role of females in 18^th century London.  Like the unnamed heroine in the story, the “neglected wives and fond abandoned nymphs” represent the restrictions placed on women. The protagonist constructs for herself a variety of different personas in an attempt to snare the object of her somewhat obsessive desires, Beauplaisir.  Her many disguises betray her aristocratic background as “a young lady of distinguished Birth, Beauty, Wit, and Spirit,” and represents a very unique type of female personality in English society. Haywood produces a single character who is multidimensional in an attempt to disrupt traditional gender roles. Early on in the story the reader is introduced to a young and somewhat naive socialite “having nobody in town, at the time, to whom she was obliged to be accountable to her actions,” (2740) She is free to transform herself. When released from the restrictions of her class, Fantomina is empowered by her new found social mobility. The author seems to suggest that the only way a woman can achieve real power within the rigid confines of a repressive society is to resist being confined at all. Haywood’s intriguing tale blurs the traditional gender and society roles that prohibit women from entering the public sphere of money, politics, and pleasure by creating a character capable of stepping out of her prescribed private life as a high born woman.

            When Fantomina transforms into Incognita, she realizes why Beauplaisir is such a superficial womanizer. ”The most violent passion, if it does not change its object, in time will wither.” (2754) Thus, she finds out through experience the actual woman does not matter to these hedonistic men; they only care about the impending conquest and not the conquered. However, in the faceless character of Incognita, “the All-conquering Beauplaisir” meets his match. Without gaining knowledge of her identity he can never lay claim to his prey and move on to his next victim. The irony in Haywood’s message is clearly that the identity of a woman does not matter until it is absent. The reader must also consider the fleeting power Incognita has over Beauplaisir in obstructing his hunt, “I have him always raving, wild, impatient, longing, dying,” suggesting that the tragic Fantomina herself has fallen victim to the corruption of power. Thus, setting the stage for a moralistic conclusion to Haywood’s novella.

            In the end, this story demonstrates the foible of infidelity that men and women may commit and the consequences that can possibly follow. Women of the upper class during Haywood’s era wouldn’t go so far as Fantomina in disguising themselves for a man. However, many would most certainly disguise their vice and immorality in order to maintain social appearances.  Through the character of the overly indulgent Beauplaisir, the reader recognizes the dichotomy of what society deems acceptable for men and women. On the other hand, Fantomina’s belief that she has “outwitted even the most Subtle of the deceiving kind,” (2751) only reinforces the fact that she is the one that is tricked and punished for trying to win the unattainable “Fine pleasure.”