I'm writing this blog as a part of Assignment assign by our professor Dr. Dilip Barad, from English Department, MKBU. In this assignment, the topic which I'm going to deal with is the 'Exploring Themes and Symbols in the play ' The Rover' by Aphra Behn.
■ Personal Information ■
Name: Unnati Baroliya
Batch: M.A Sem 1( 2023-25)
Enrollment number: 5108230002
Email Address: unnatibaroliya@gmail.com
Roll no: 32
■ Assignment details ■
Topic: Exploring Themes and Symbols in the play ' The Rover.'
Paper: Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Period.
Paper number: 101
Subject code: 22392
Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi Department of English Maharaj Krishnakumarshinghji Bhavnagar University
♧Table of content♧
♧ Abstract
♧ About the Author
♧ Introduction
♧ key words
♧ Themes
♧ Symbols
♧ Conclusion
♧About the Author♧
Aphra Behn, was born on 1640, Harbledown, England and died in April 1689, London. She was an English dramatist, fiction writer, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing.
One tradition identifies Behn as the child known only as Ayfara or Aphra who traveled in the 1650s with a couple named Amis to Suriname, which was then an English possession. She was more likely the daughter of a barber, Bartholomew Johnson, who may or may not have sailed with her and the rest of her family to Suriname in 1663. She returned to England in 1664 and married a merchant named Behn; it is asumed that he might have died (or the couple separated) soon after. Her wit and talent brought her into the high esteem. she was employed by King Charles II in secret service in the Netherlands in 1666. Unrewarded and briefly improvised for debt, she began to write to support herself.
Behn’s early works were tragicomedies in verse. In 1670 her first play, The Forc’d Marriage, was produced, and The Amorous Prince followed a year later. Many of these witty and vivacious comedies, notably The Rover (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were commercially successful.
Though Behn wrote many plays, her fiction today draws more interest. Her short novel Oroonoko (1688) tells the story of an enslaved African prince whom Behn claimed to have known in South America. Its engagement with the themes of slavery, race, and gender, as well as its influence on the development of the English novel, helped to make it, by the turn of the 21st century, her best-known work.
Behn’s output was immense; she wrote other popular works of fiction, and she often adapted works by older dramatists. She also wrote poetry, the bulk of which was collected in Poems upon Several Occasions, with A Voyage to the Island of Love (1684) and Lycidus; or, The Lover in Fashion (1688). Behn’s charm and generosity won her a wide circle of friends, and her relative freedom as a professional writer, as well as the subject matter of her works, made her the object of some scandal.
♧Introduction♧
The Rover, comedy by Aphra Behn, produced and published in two parts in 1677 and 1681.
■ Love versus Lust
The theme of love versus lust touches every character in the play. Belvile and Florinda are chaste and virtuous lovers, biding in the strength of their emotional connection until they are able to be married.On the other side, Willmore begins the play decrying emotional connection and seeking only the temporary pleasures of the flesh. Frederick, to a lesser extent, agrees with him. However, both come to respect the female characters in the play and agree to marriage by the end.Ckick here
Angellica, by contrast, for all her skill in the physical realm of love, has never loved anyone romantically. She mentions this several times as a kind of virginity, no less than Hellena's.
■ Disguise
Irish author Oscar Wilde said "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Much of The Rover's humor comes from mistaken identity as characters disguise themselves, impersonate others, and dress across gender. Disguise grants the characters a license to act as they wish, rather than as society expects them to. Hellena takes Carnival as an opportunity to flirt and love as she would never be able to as a proper Spanish lady. Characters also take advantage of their namelessly to peer candidly into situations they would otherwise not have access to, such as when Florinda tests Belvile's loyalty while disguised. There are more pointed deceits as well, such as Don Antonio sending Belvile to duel in his clothes to protect his honor. In addition, Lucetta pretends to be a noblewoman rather than a prostitute, and Hellena dresses herself as a male page to meddle with Willmore.
Many times within the play, disguises fool even the closest familiarity. Don Pedro fails to recognize his own sister in a mask, with nearly tragic consequences. Lovers Belvile and Florinda become stressed when on several occasions they do not recognize each other in disguise.
Notably, of all the characters, Willmore spends the least amount of time in disguise. He has little to hide. While he is a liar and a rake, he is also exactly who he is on the surface. Furthermore, he alone of all the characters sees through a disguise without the aid of some other clue. His ability to recognize Hellena is one of the signs they are well matched.
■ Women's Struggles
The female characters in The Rover constantly struggle against the constraints of their social roles. With the exception of Hellena, however, they do not stray too far from them. Though invested in social expectations, Florinda refuses to marry someone designated for her, and she conspires to escape her brother and her father in order to be with Belvile. Hellena, likewise, has no intention of taking her holy orders and living in a convent, and she says so with considerably less decorum than her sister. They commiserate together and encourage each Hellena urges Florinda, "come prithee be not sad—We'll out-wit twenty Brothers, if you'll be ruled by me." Despite being an older, respectable woman, she also wants to enjoy herself.
It is important to draw a distinction between the circumstances of a refined courtesan and a common whore, which may seem like a minor detail at first but in fact turns out to be instrumental in demonstrating the depth of the character of Angellica. As has been pointed out, "courtesans in early modern drama are figured as European, usually Italian, versions of the plain English whore", from whom they are distinguished in that they "look and behave like upper-class women", which in turn corresponds to the type of “clients they can attract with their particular beauty, location, and skills."
Angellica represents a courtesan who appears to have weighed her options and deliberately decided to exploit to her advantage men’s particular weakness for sexual pleasure. While a common prostitute might be seen as demeaning, disrespecting, even dehumanizing herself, the courtesan Angellica contrives to elevate herself above the ethically precarious and often sordid nature of sexuality as a business transaction because she is the one who sets the rules and makes them non-negotiable. Angellica is aware of her value and requires a corresponding compensation, which is clearly established when Willmore attempts to purchase her services but lacks the funds, and no matter how insistently he pesters Angellica’s maid Moretta for admission, Moretta flatly refuses to haggle and turns him away as one would do with an impudent beggar, addressing him sharply: “We have no need of your doctrine, though you have of our charity: but at present we have no scraps, we can afford no kindness for God’s sake".
Angellica provides a passionate defense that her profession as a prostitute is no worse than the mercenary way in which men investigate the size of women's dowries before deciding whom to marry. Yet she is looked down on for a financial concern that is judged normal in men. These women openly express opinions on their restrictive lot in life and take action to change it.
Hellena steps further outside traditional boundaries than the other characters. She pursues Willmore and declares that her choice of a romantic companion will be solely her decision. It does not matter to her if a man likes her if she does not like him. Hellena's unfeminine boldness—to the point of rudeness and is part of what charms Willmore. By the end of the play, she has gone so far as to present herself as a man. Her unwillingness to be ruled is presented as much of what makes her attractive.
♧Symbols♧
■ Carnival
Italian cities such as Venice and Naples (where The Rover takes place) were famed for their Carnivals, city-wide festivals during which many of the rules of ordinary life were provisionally suspended. Within the play, Carnival symbolizes a world of inverted values and freedom in which noblewomen can roam the streets and impoverished cavaliers can court them and win their hands.
Yet the world of the Carniva and the world without consequences, is not without its dark side. Predators such as Willmore and Blunt take advantage of the free-for-all atmosphere in order to accost and even assault women, while hostile men often end up dueling each other on the streets. In depicting both the positive and dark sides of Carnival, Behn is displaying both the comic and the troubling aspects of the topsy-turvy, consequence-free genre of Restoration Comedy.
■ Masks
Hellena, Florinda, and the cavaliers all use masks and disguises in order to plan and carry out their various connections. On a deeper level, however, masks represent the confusion of identity that takes place within this play. Willmore and Hellena fall in love without even knowing each other’s names. Belvile, meanwhile, repeatedly does not recognize Florinda even when she is right in front of him. Masks, therefore, are emblems of confusion and deception, and proof that identity is not as stable or singular as it seems.
when the social order is upturned and rules are broken, the greatest subversive potential is manifested not by any of the figures disguised in costumes and masks but by Angellica, who significantly does not wear any. Although she makes herself publicly visible through her profession, even advertising her availability by displaying a portrait of herself in the street to attract potential customers, she keeps the purity of her character intact.
Left heartbroken by Willmore, she laments the loss of her innocence and honour, which are again curiously selected qualities to be associated with a prostitute: “Had I remained in innocent security, / I should have thought all men were born my slaves, / . . . / But when love held the mirror, the undeceiving glass / Reflected all the weakness of my soul, and made me know / My richest treasure being lost, my honour” (Behn). Here and elsewhere, Angellica not only challenges conventional expectations but above all cleverly subverts traditional morality, according to which a woman’s honour and innocence are based solely on whether or not she is chaste of body. Angellica sees herself as having been deprived of her innocence because she was never in love before and because she trusted Willmore’s honourable word, which turned out to be false, as the rover dispenses the same promises to any woman he chances on.
■ Angelica’s Picture
Every day, Angelica commands her servants to display pictures of herself in front of her house, so all the citizens of Naples can admire her beauty. Once she falls in love with Willmore, however, she ended to do so. These pictures represent not only her vanity, but also her sense of self. The prostitute stops displaying them because she has fully given herself to Willmore and so is no longer “giving herself” to anyone else through taking a disastrous decision, as she soon learns. Her picture being insulted by Willmore is symbolic of the fate she is going to meet in her affair with Willmore.
■ Swords
Throughout The Rover, swords are associated with ruggedness, virility, and power. Belvile is a true man in part because of his skill with a sword. Much of Blunt’s humiliation comes from being robbed of his sword, and then being forced to wear a rusty one. At one point the cavaliers and Don Pedro draw their swords, and much is made of the fact that Pedro’s Spanish blade is longer than their English swords. Willmore, in particular, often uses swordplay as a metaphor for intercourse. The connection between masculinity and violence is a traditional but disturbing one, and Behn takes care to show the consequences of such a belligerent and dangerous atmosphere.
♧Conclusion♧
In Aphra Behn's "The Rover," the theme of love is intricately woven into the fabric of the play. The characters grapple with the complexities of romantic relationships, exploring the contrast between physical desire and genuine emotional connection. Behn delves into the societal expectations placed on individuals, particularly women, in matters of love, revealing the tension between personal desires and external pressures.
Aphra Behn, a Restoration playwright of unprecedented success, lived by her pen and therefore was obliged to conform to the other literary production of that time (written mostly by men): comedies featuring libertines, coarse morals, debauchery and fortune-hunting protagonists. Behn wrote in this manner, yet adding a satirical spin to her work, by presenting the character of Angellica Bianca, a prostitute (actually a very ladylike companion to older wealthy men). Paradoxically, Angellica is presented as the most upright and generous person among the cast; lamentably, she believes in oaths, of which Wilmore, the double-dealing eponymous rover of the play, cures her mercilessly and swiftly, as soon as he meets a virgin, who comes with a large fortune attached. By this, Behn introduces a dark undercurrent to an ostensibly comic play. This paper pays homage to the elaborate ways Aphra Behn employed to present a prostitute as the most intriguing character of the play.
The carnival setting serves as a symbolic space where characters temporarily escape the constraints of society. This backdrop allows for a heightened sense of freedom and hedonism, reflecting the characters' desires to break free from societal norms. The transient nature of the carnival becomes a metaphor for the fleeting nature of love and passion, highlighting the impermanence of relationships. Masks and disguises are employed as powerful symbols, emphasizing the fluidity of identity and the facade that individuals present to the world. Characters engage in role-playing, blurring the lines between reality and illusion. This not only adds a layer of intrigue to the plot but also serves as a commentary on the performative nature of societal roles and expectations.
Furthermore, Behn explores gender roles, challenging traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. The female characters, in particular, exhibit agency and assertiveness, defying societal norms of passivity. This challenges the audience to reconsider preconceived notions about gender dynamics in the context of the play. In essence, Aphra Behn's use of these themes and symbols in "The Rover" goes beyond mere storytelling. It provides a nuanced exploration of human relationships, societal expectations, and the fluidity of identity. Through rich character development and symbolic elements, Behn crafts a narrative that invites audiences to reflect on the complexities of love, desire, and the intricacies of navigating societal norms.(ChatGPT)
♧Refrences♧
Dinter, Martin T.
“(PDF) A prostitute as the unsung heroine in Aphra Behn's The Rover.” ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366486456_
A_prostitute_as_the_unsung_heroine_in_Aphra_Behn's_The_Rover.
Accessed 27 November 2023.
Franceschina, John.
“Shadow and Substance in Aphra Behn’s ‘The Rover’: The Semiotics of Restoration Performance.”
Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, vol. 19, no. 1, 1995, pp. 29–42.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43293595. Acc.
Drougge, Helga.
“‘We’ll Learn That of the Men’: Female Sexuality in Southerne’s Comedies.”
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 33, no. 3, 1993, pp. 545–63.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/451013. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Rover Themes.” Course Hero, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Rover/themes/.
Accessed 27 November 2023.
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