Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze is a novel [lower-alpha 1] by Eliza Haywood published in 1725. In it, the protagonist disguises herself as four different women in her efforts to understand how a man may interact with each individual persona. Part of the tradition of amatory fiction is to rewrite the story of the persecuted maiden into a story of feminine power and sexual desire.
The story opens in a playhouse in London where the unnamed main character, intrigued by the men at the theater and the attention they pay to the prostitutes there, decides to pretend being a prostitute herself. Disguised, she especially enjoys talking with Beauplaisir, whom she has encountered before, though previously constrained by her social status's formalities. He, not recognizing her, and believing her favors to be for sale, asks to meet her. She demurs and puts him off until the next evening.
In preparation, she rents lodgings and then meets him at the theater the following night. They go to the house and have dinner. Meanwhile, the protagonist realizes that Beauplaisir wants to have sex and she tries to resist him by telling him she is a virgin. However, he is too aroused and does not listen to her protests, and he rapes her.
Afterwards, she is despondent and rejects his money, which confuses Beauplaisir, who did not believe her protestations being serious. Worried about her reputation, she gives her name as "Fantomina".
Soon, however, Beauplaisir tires of her and leaves for Bath. Though she continues to employ the ruse of "Fantomina" throughout the story, the protagonist drops this alias for a short time to pursue Beauplaisir to Bath. Dressed as a country maid, she obtains employment at the inn where he is staying, taking the name Celia. When Beauplaisir sees her, he believes her to be a new maid, and makes romantic overtures. The protagonist plots this encounter carefully and Beauplaisir's every reaction is drawn from him by her manipulation, but the lover believes he has ravished her in spite of some protest on her part. He gives her some money in recompense.
He leaves Bath after about a month, tired of Celia. On his way home, he encounters Mrs. Bloomer, who is the protagonist dressed as a widow, and invites her into his carriage. Her grief prompts him to try to raise her spirits, which results in them having sex in an inn along the way.
When this identity again begins to lose favor with him, the heroine sends Beauplaisir a letter, signed "Incognita," declaring her undying love and passion for him. She writes there is nothing she will refuse him, except the sight of her face. They meet and she, wearing a mask, agrees to sleep with him in the dark. Beauplaisir keeps up each of these affairs, never realizing they are the same woman. The protagonist becomes pregnant and after she gives birth her mother insists she name the father. When Beauplaisir arrives, he does not know who she is until she tells her story in full. At the end, her mother sends her to live in a monastery in France.
Fantomina explores a variety of themes, almost none of which come without literary dispute and controversy. Its unnamed protagonist's game of disguise touches on everything from gender roles, to identity, to sexual desire. Even more so, her inability or unwillingness to seduce Beauplaisir as her true self, heavily implied as a product of a respected social status, also touches on the issue of class in 18th century British society. In the infancy of the British novel genre as a whole, the theme of characters using dress to create deceptive new identities was prominent. [1]
One of the most sweeping themes throughout Fantomina is gender, and its role in shaping the dynamics between Fantomina, Beauplaisir, and the different sects of societies they find themselves in. There are clear challenges to gender normative behavior Haywood is making throughout the story, while also portraying an honest depiction of the disparity between male and female social standings. Fantomina manipulates the constraints put on her because of her gender to satisfy her desire for sex, already thought to be an inherently masculine desire to have. To seduce Beauplaisir, Fantomina adopts multiple feminine disguises, enabling her to paradoxically act out a masculine libertine identity. [2] This sharply contrasts the wits that are necessary to fool him, which Fantomina demonstrates. Clearly this challenges the notion that women are intellectually or sexually subdued. Other scholars suggest that Beauplaisir was not so easily fooled, but that Fantomina's skills as a performer allowed her to repeatedly seduce him. [3]
But, given the fact that Beauplaisir escapes the end of the novella unaffected, irresponsible for the consequences of his affairs, Haywood hits readers with a dose of reality regarding gender inequalities. Despite the fact that men are easily manipulated, sexually promiscuous, predictable and even foolish, as Haywood seems to argue, they are still regarded as the superior gender.
Fantomina's economic and social standing is portrayed in an interesting light, because her privilege seems to be more of a constraint on her than it is a benefit. This critiques the standards placed on women especially, coming from an elite background. She feels more comfortable coming forward with her sexuality in disguise at a brothel than she would at a party with her fellow middle-class men and women. Lowering her class, where there is less concern over a high-society marriage opportunity, and virginity is less of a critical concern, allots her the freedom she wants.[ citation needed ]
However, there is never an interaction between separate classes throughout the novella, rather a constant shifting throughout them. So, Fantomina enjoys all of the "benefits" of coming from a lower class, without having to endure the actual economic constraints.[ citation needed ]
Especially at the time of its publication, a woman's sexual desire was thought to be muted, even nonexistent. Sexual pursuits of any kind were thought to be a man's game, left for a woman to indulge or deny. Fantomina so obviously challenges the standing ideas of what desire looks like and who it can come from. Beauplaisir can be quite forward and open with his desire for whomever Fantomina is impersonating. And while her desires have to be publicly subdued throughout the story, she is the one orchestrating their sexual encounters. Some even argue that this desire is expressed through performance. [4]
Women's dress was seen as a form of deception in Fantomina. Because of this deception that the main character repeatedly takes part in, she is able to have power over the man. [5]
Haywood's story "radically rewrites" the typical "persecuted maiden" story of the early eighteenth century. [6] The heroine is introduced as "A young lady of distinguished Birth, Beauty, Wit, and Spirit" visiting London from the country, who is "young, a Stranger to the World, and consequently to the Dangers of it; and having no Body in Town, at that Time, to whom she was oblig’d to be accountable for her Actions, did in every Thing as her Inclinations or Humour render’d most agreeable to her". [6] The reader thus expects the heroine to be seduced and reach a tragic end; such stories often taught readers about the dangers of "vulnerability, willfulness, and lack of guidance". [7] In Fantomina, however, the heroine does not die nor is she disgraced (the typical endings). Instead, Haywood uses the disguise, wit, and sexual freedom common to Restoration comedies to show the similarities between the two genres, one tragic and the other comic. [7] While Fantomina falls for Beauplaisir, like other maidens, [8] she is also a heroine with an explicit sexual desire. As critic Margaret Croskery writes, Haywood "refuses to define female sexual virtue in terms of chastity or a victimized sexual objecthood…. Instead, she defines virtuous love in terms of sincerity and constancy". [9]
Fantomina's ending, neither true to the "persecuted maiden" genre nor true to the marriages of Restoration comedies, is ambiguous. Fantomina purposefully establishes and iterates serial subjectivity, or the practice of someone who reinvent themselves in oder to subvert cultural norms, and this allows Haywood to comment on these norms. [10] This would have shocked its readers. As one editor of the text writes, "where the traditional moral might be expected, this story ends with a casual delight in 'an Intrigue, which, considering the Time it lasted, was as full of Variety as any, perhaps, that many Ages has produced'". [11]
Fantomina also draws from the culture of the political pornography of the seventeenth century, which unflatteringly portrayed London commoners as the source of democratic unrest and protest. [12] In the 1720s, Robert Walpole was attempting to limit the franchise in London. However, the political pornography of this time reversed the typical structure of these stories by portraying him as the villainous seducer and London as the "violated maiden". [13] Like these stories, Fantomina's heroine "ultimately triumph[s] over those who would self-servingly exploit the favors of London's commons”. [13]
Fantomina is the first disguise the protagonist uses. Initially just wanting to see what it's like, she eventually encounters Beauplaisir and, after some misgivings after raping her, falls in love with her. However, Fantomina's charm quickly wears off and he leaves her.
This is the second identity that the protagonist uses. Beauplaisir moves to Bath, the protagonist follows him, and takes on the identity of a country girl working as a maid. There, she seduces Beauplaisir without him realizing being persuaded. Soon, Beauplaisir gets tired of Celia, and leaves.
The protagonist's third disguise, Mrs. Bloomer is a recent widow that Beauplaisir meet after she 'lost her way back to London'. After a trist at an inn, the disguise loses favor when she realizes Beauplaisir wants to see Fantomina.
The protagonist's final identity, used by her to captivate Beauplaisir anew. Incognita sends Beauplaisir a letter promising an ardent lover if he can accept the condition of her not revealing her true name or face. She keeps her mysterious air by wearing a mask and meeting with him only in the dark. The protagonist does not receive the opportunity to fully play out this identity's trick before her enterprise come to an end with the return of her mother.
He is an aristocratic male enticed multiple times into a sexual relationship with the same woman wearing different disguises. Though he knows the protagonist, he does not recognize her in any of her false identities. Due to the sexual nature of their relationship, Beauplaisir unknowingly gets the protagonist pregnant. The truth is revealed to him through the protagonist's mother. At first he promises to look after the child, but then, by the mother's choice, is "ensued from these Civilities" [14] and leaves the infant with her.
Fantomina was first published in 1725 in the second edition of Haywood's collected works, which was entitled Secret Histories, Novels, and Poems. [15] Although Haywood was a popular writer at the time, few of her works were republished between the eighteenth century and 1963. [16] The reasons for this have to do with gender, "the bias against didactic and popular literature, ... Haywood’s complicated experiments with genre", and the way that the history of the novel has been told in literary studies. [16] However, since the rise of feminist literary criticism, Haywood's works and those of other early eighteenth-century female novelists have received attention from scholars and Fantomina has appeared in several anthologies since the 1980s. [17]
In 2016 the book was adapted into a farcical comedy for stage by Godfrey&West. [18] A brief run at the ADC Theatre using the title "Love in a Maze" saw the show receive 4-star reviews from both Varsity and Cambridge Theatre Review. [19] [20] The show enjoyed further success the next year at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival under the name "Bad Habits", [21] again receiving 4-star reviews during its two-week run. [22]
The show follows faithfully the encounters of Fantomina and Beauplaisir as described in the original novella, although the story is presented by a cast of nuns living at the monastery when Fantomina has been since the end of the novella. The ending of the play therefore drifts dramatically from the original ending, hinting at "a heart-warmingly cheesy message of ‘being true to oneself’, only to rapidly shed this momentary serious message to give way to an explosively theatrical ending." [22] Productions of the show require minimal set and a small cast of 6 actors, as well as a solo violinist who is present on stage throughout the performance. [21]
Sexual themes are frequently used in science fiction or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a protagonist with an alternative sexuality, a sexual encounter between a human and a fictional extraterrestrial, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience that deviate from the conventional.
Eliza Haywood, born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. An increase in interest and recognition of Haywood's literary works began in the 1980s. Described as "prolific even by the standards of a prolific age", Haywood wrote and published over 70 works in her lifetime, including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature and periodicals. Haywood today is studied primarily as one of the 18th-century founders of the novel in English.
Love in Excess (1719–1720) is Eliza Haywood's best known novel. It details the amorous escapades of Count D'Elmont, a rake who becomes reformed over the course of the novel. Love in Excess was a huge bestseller in its time, going through multiple reissues in the four years following its initial publication. It was once compared in terms of book sales with Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. This information was later shown to be incorrect; the novel selling only about 6000 copies over 23 years.
Amatory fiction is a genre of British literature that became popular during the late 17th century and early 18th century, approximately 1660–1730. It was often spread throughout coteries, published while trying to remain true to the writer's vision without criticism. Amatory fiction predates, and in some ways predicts, the invention of the novel and is an early predecessor of the romance novel. Indeed, many themes of the contemporary romance novel were first explored in amatory fiction. The writing of amatory fiction work was dominated by women, and it was considered to have mainly female readers; but it is assumed that men read these novels as well. As its name implies, amatory fiction is preoccupied with sexual love and romance. Most of its works were short stories.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is an 1893 novella by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). The story centers on Maggie, a young girl from the Bowery who is driven to unfortunate circumstances by poverty and solitude. The work was considered risqué by publishers because of its literary realism and strong themes. Crane – who was 22 years old at the time – financed the book's publication himself, although the original 1893 edition was printed under the pseudonym Johnston Smith. After the success of 1895's The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie was reissued in 1896 with considerable changes and re-writing. The story is followed by George's Mother.
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by the English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature about marriage.
Euphrosyne of Alexandria, also called Euphrosynē, was a saint who disguised herself as a male to enter a monastery and live, for 38 years, as an ascetic. Her feast day is celebrated on September 25 by the Greek Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite Catholics, on September 27 by the Episcopal Church, and on January 16 by the Roman Catholic Church. Euphrosyne was born to a wealthy family in Alexandria; her father Paphnutius was a devout Christian and her mother died when Euphrosyne was twelve. When she was 18, her father wanted her to marry, so she escaped, disguised as a man, and entered the same monastery he often visited for spiritual counsel. She spent most of her years as a monk in seclusion because her beauty tempted the other monks. During the final year of her life, Euphrosyne became her father's spiritual director, comforting his grief over losing his only daughter. Eventually, she revealed her identity to him and they reconciled. After she died, he entered her monastery and became an ascetic himself, living in her cell until he died ten years later.
The History of the Nun, or The Fair Vow Breaker, is a novella by Aphra Behn published in 1689. It is a piece of amatory fiction.
Lust, Caution is a novella by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang, first published in 1979. It is set in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Reportedly, the short story "took Chang more than two decades to complete". The 2007 film of the same name by renowned Taiwanese director Ang Lee was an adaptation of this novel. The story focuses on the plight of Wang Chia-chih and her involvement in a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee, who is a co-collaborator of a Chinese collaborator with the invading Japanese force. The novella was allegedly based on a true story of the wartime spy Zheng Pingru. According to David Der-wei Wang, a professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Lust, Caution “drew controversy thanks to a biographical subtext: it seems to project Chang's own wartime experience as a collaborator's lover”.
The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person. In the standard and most common form of the bed trick, a man goes to a sexual assignation with a certain woman, and without his knowledge that woman's place is taken by a substitute.
In neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung in his Theory of Psychoanalysis, is a girl's psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father. In the course of her psychosexual development, the complex is the girl's phallic stage; a boy's analogous experience is the Oedipus complex. The Electra complex occurs in the third—phallic stage —of five psychosexual development stages: the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital—in which the source of libido pleasure is in a different erogenous zone of the infant's body.
Cross-dressing as a literary motif is well attested in older literature but is becoming increasingly popular in modern literature as well. It is often associated with character nonconformity and sexuality rather than gender identity.
The Anti-Pamela; or Feign'd Innocence Detected is a 1741 novel written by Eliza Haywood as a satire of the 1740 novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson. It has also been presented with the subtitle "Mock-Modesty Display'd and Punish'd."
La Fausse Suivante, or Le Fourbe Puni is a play by French playwright Pierre de Marivaux written in 1724, and produced for the first time by the Comédie-Italienne on July 8, 1724, at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne.
The Female Marine, or The Adventures of Lucy Brewer, was first published in 1815 as a series of pamphlets sold in Boston. The series is the supposedly autobiographical account of Lucy Brewer, although controversy has surrounded the true authorship of the story as some believe it was in fact written by Nathaniel Hill Wright.
The fair triumvirate of wit refers to the three 17th and 18th century authors Eliza Haywood, Delarivier Manley, and Aphra Behn.
Forced seduction is a theme found frequently in Western literature wherein man-on-woman rape eventually turns into a genuine love affair. A popular example is Luke and Laura from the American soap opera General Hospital.
Welcome to Temptation is a contemporary romance written by Jennifer Crusie and released in 2000. The novel explores the love story between Sophie Dempsey, a screenwriter making a movie in the small town of Temptation, and the mayor, Phinneas "Phin" Tucker. Over the course of the story, they solve a murder and deal with conflict around Sophie's movie, which is alternately a documentary or a porn flick. The lead characters appear in supporting roles in the sequel, Faking It, which centers on Sophie's brother, a secondary character in Welcome to Temptation.
The Female Spectator, published by Eliza Haywood between 1744 and 1746, is generally considered to be the first periodical in English written by women for women.
Kirsten Saxton is a professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, California where she is also the director of the MA of English.