In The Rover, Aphra Behn illustrates a world in which sex and economic exchange come together under the mandates of patriarchy. In such a society, sexuality is commodified and a woman is sold into the marriage market (by her family, in an attempt to secure wealth and class status), or sells her marketable goods to the highest bidder. Female identity, therefore, is also linked to issues related to sexuality. Who a woman is is linked to the (constructed) role or position she occupies in society – a role or position, that is, which is itself defined by a particular type of sexual activity or expression. All these indicators are, of course, ultimately subject to the determining male gaze: a woman is who or what she is perceived as. The Rover, therefore, suggests that “female identity” is a rather fluid concept, varying along the spectrum of gender-based perception and economic function. In a society where the line between “kept woman” and “quality woman” is so potentially ambiguous, so thin (since both “types” are implicated and active in the sexual market economy), virtue, honor and reputation play a significant role. role in making this distinction. In the plays the three main female characters, Angellica, Florinda and Hellena, their loss, temporary absence and maintenance of honor, respectively, illustrate the importance of virtue in the market economy. Ultimately, Hellena will embody the lessons on virtue modeled for her by Angellica and Florinda, thus creating for herself a life that celebrates and echoes the spirit of libertinism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As a courtesan, Angellica Bianca enacts a sexual, economic, and social role in which her virtue, whether in terms of “honor” or “virginity,” has no value. Sex, not virtue, is the commodity that belongs to and defines the “prostitute.” Angellica relies heavily on her sexual cred, on men who believe her sales pitches and purchase her goods, to make a living and carve out her adequate space in society. She has no time for trifles like love, stating that she is "determined that nothing but gold should enchant (her) heart" (II.i.135-136), and grateful to have been born under a “kind but surly star” that prevented her from falling in love (II.i.139). When Angellica first appears in the play, she is a famous courtesan whose very image attracts the attention of the male population of Naples. After seeing her photo of Angellica's form of self-promotion/advertising, Willmore comments, "How wonderfully beautiful she is" and curses the "poverty" that prevents him from affording her price, a poverty he "never complains about" but when it hinders his approach to the beauty which virtue could never purchase” (II.i.102-105), it is clear that Angellica is conceived as an object of “purchase” clearly outside the realm of "virtue". “Purchase” and “virtue” are binary terms: if Angellica embodies market value, she must necessarily lack “honor” value. What happens, however, if Angellica wants to take back the honor she gave up as a prostitute? What if he wanted to explore love – explore the possibilities of “relationship” outside of a life of paid sexual service? She encounters such a desire – and dilemma – in the dissolute figure of Willmore. When Willmore convinces Angellica to sleep with him for free, she essentially gives up the "market power" that her position as a courtesan has granted her. Hisvalue is not in virtue, but in sex. However, when she offers that sex for free, she loses her influence as a prostitute. In her soliloquy, Angellica confesses: In vain I consulted all my charms, in vain I appreciated this beauty, in vain I believed that my eyes could light lasting fires. I had forgotten my name, my infamy, and the blame which honor inflicts on those who dare feign sober passion here. Beautiful reputation, even if it leaves behind more virtues than those who live where it dwells, yet once gone, those virtues no longer shine. (IV.iii.396-405)In her role as a courtesan, Angellica had essentially isolated herself from the "rebuke" of the mainstream public. In her context, quarantined from “that general disease of (her) sex so long” (II.i.137-138), protected in what she later calls her “innocent safety” (Vi270), she had found a place of welcome to the extent that she was idolized, longed for and adored. However, once she offers her heart to Willmore, who does not dote on her, who is false in the “vows” he initially makes (II.ii.148), she is exposed to the judgments and expectations of a different value system. In this context, she is reminded of her “infamy,” her questionable reputation, and how no one would take her desire for love (the “sober passion here”) seriously. Angellica's soliloquy also reveals her awareness of how expensive a good reputation is, as she emphasizes how much such a reputation “costs.” By adopting a “good reputation,” one abandons (or “leaves behind”) less honorable “virtues”; that is, virtues more in line with the libertine spirit: obscenity, "saltiness", fun, freedom, etc. However, “once gone” the qualities of a good reputation – honor, purity, virginity – are lost forever and leave no trace of the “bolder” virtues they supplanted, for both sets of virtues “shine no more.” More importantly, however, Angellica is realizing that she cannot take back the honor she would need to secure love. She echoes this understanding in a speech to Willmore later in the play, where she says: But when love held the mirror, the deceiving glass, it reflected all the weakness of my soul, and let me know, that my treasure most rich was lost, my honor was lost. , All the rest of the spoils could not be worth the conqueror's care or value. Oh, how I fell, like a long-worshipped idol, discovering all the deceptions. (Vi268-279). In her prostitution, Angellica continually protected herself from feelings that would interfere with her trade. Once unattended, Angellica is confronted with the harsh truths exposed (“reflections”) in the “deceptive mirror” of her unrequited love for Willmore. His romantic desires expose all the “swindles” of his profession, the vain “charm” and “appreciated beauty” mentioned in the previous soliloquy. More tragically for Angellica, however, is the recognition that her “richest treasure” had not been her good looks or her sexual allure, but her “honor.” Without that virtue, all she has left is her body, the “spoils that remain.” However, it is the body with virtue that is “worth/The conqueror's care (and) worth.” “Value” here is multivalent: it means both market or economic value, and the love and respect accorded a woman of good reputation. In both economies therefore, that of the exchange of goods and that of care, Angellica is denied space once she expresses her love for Willmore. Without the badge of honor, a woman is subject to vile treatment and ill regard, as evidenced by Florinda when she temporarily "loses" her virtuous distinction. Unlike Angellica, Florinda is a "woman of quality", a ladyupper-class Spanish woman who has maintained her good reputation. However, she is still part of the sexual economy as she finds herself reluctantly participating in an arranged marriage. Her father “plans” for her to marry “rich old Don Vincentio” (Ii16-17), a relic of Spanish imperialism (having made money by plundering Spanish colonies) who will increase the Florinda family's wealth and social standing. Florinda, however, fears a possible future as Don Vincentio's wife, calling him a "hated object" (Ii19) in which the qualities she recognizes as his marketable assets, her "youth, beauty and (initial) fortune" (Ii74), it would be wasted. Hellena agrees that Don Vincentio would be an inadequate lover, commenting that he is too old to reproduce (Florinda – capable of "increasing his purses perhaps, but not his family" [Ii84]) and "figuratively" identifying his sexual defects through metaphorical image of his “foul sheets” (ii115). The other man in Florinda's family, her brother Pedro, also sees her and her uncontaminated sexuality as a potential bargaining chip. He would like her to marry Don Antonio, who is both Pedro's good friend and the viceroy's son. Therefore, Pedro may be motivated by a certain sense of male camaraderie, but it is more likely that he is defending his friend in order to increase his own influence and political status. In both circumstances, Florinda's romantic desires are completely ignored, as she has fallen in love with the Englishman Belvile. During a street masquerade, disguised by her visor, she freely promises Belvile to meet her later that night. Ironically, it is this disguised exchange that will lead to the tarnishing of his honor and the confusion surrounding his caste identity. Florinda leaves the carnival scene to wait for Belvile in a garden for their arranged rendezvous. Unexpectedly, however, she meets the dissolute Willmore, who does not recognize her as "Florinda", a respectable woman and his friend's love interest. As far as he is concerned, she is simply a beautiful woman alone at night, and therefore suspected of being unaccompanied and wandering in the dark. Therefore, she must be a prostitute, and Willmore accordingly declares her, in the throes of sexual excitement, as "a real slut!" (III.v.16). An attempted rape scene continues, with Willmore pressuring Florinda to consummate their encounter quickly – because, by staying too long, she would allow a quick “accident” to become a blameworthy act of “intentional fornication” [III. v.35-38]. She might report rape but, as Willmore points out, who would believe her intentions were “honorable”? “Why, at this time of night,” he asks, “was your spider door open, dear spider, if not to catch flies?” (III.v.53-54). Not only does Willmore's question/charge deprive Florinda of any redeeming virtue, but it also inverts the rape scenario by portraying Florinda as the predator, with the “spider” catching the “flies” in its “web.” It is only when Belvile enters and recognizes his lover that Florinda's identity as “lady” is affirmed. Furious at the shame and harm that may have befallen Florinda, Belvile wonders how Willmore could have mistaken her for a prostitute: “You could not (you) fail to see something in her face and person, as to excite a terrible reverence in your soul? " (III.vi.23-24) No - apparently in the darkness of the night, to male eyes blinded by lust and desire, there is nothing innate that shines in a woman's virtue to distinguish her from a "wandering prostitute" (III.vi .20) In the unrecognized figure of Florinda, Willmore saw simply “as simple a woman as (he) could desire” (III.vi.25).This episode of mistaken identity confirms Angellica's observation that, in fact, once the title of “good reputation” is removed, the virtues associated with it in women “no longer shine”. In a rather tragicomic twist, Florinda finds herself in a similar situation later in the story play, when she accidentally wanders into Blunt's room. Robbed and humiliated recently by a prostitute posing as a lady, Blunt sees in Florinda the opportunity to avenge his embarrassment: “(I) will take revenge on one prostitute for the sins of another” (IV.v.52) . So, he and Frederick attempt to trap Florinda into forced group sex. It is only when Florinda gives Blunt a ring, showing him a physical representation of her virtue, offering him a sign of worth instead of demanding it as a prostitute would, that the men question their assumptions. "I'm starting to suspect something;" says Frederick, “and 'it would basely anger us to be bound for a rape on a quality maid' (IV.v.123-125). These rape scenes and the rapidity with which they emerge highlight the extreme fluidity of female identity. Although seemingly out of place, “formally” incongruous in a play, they are significant for the way they demonstrate how deeply the “female self” is entangled in issues of sexual activity and male perception. Clearly, “honor” is not an innate quality, but must be corroborated by social status. This is precisely the “social” game that Hellena will play to ensure her happy ending. From the lessons taught for her by Angellica and Florinda, Hellena understands the importance of female honor. Like her counterparts, Hellena is involved in the economic exchange between the sexes, fully recognizing and appreciating the value of her quality products. In the first scene of the opera, for example, Hellena speaks of herself as a rare-to-find art object, “suitable” for love. He asks Florinda: “Haven't I a world of youth? Gay humor? A passable beauty? A desirable vigor? Well shaped? Clean limbs? Breathe sweet?" (Ii38-40). Possessing these traits, Hellena appears to have valued herself as a real catch, placing a high value on her contribution to the sexual marketplace. It is this recognition of herself as a commodity that motivates the his decision to take to the field before leaving for the convent and begin "his eternal penance in a monastery" [Ii135]. He focuses on the libertine Willmore, who he meets in disguise during the masquerade party. His intentions, his priorities , are rather ambiguous. While Florinda adores Belvile and Belvile alone, with the desire to eventually marry the Englishman, Hellena may be more interested in extending the moment of flirtation, the space of play and experimentation represented by the mask "Not c 'Is there any difference between being allowed to love me and being allowed to lie with me?' she asks Willmore, who is eager to have her in his bed (I.ii.189-190). This is perhaps Hellena's attempt to prolong the thrill of the Carinvalesque and the proof of how she is a kind of female vagabond. For Hellena, the best way to extend the Saturnalia is to wear the mask of marriage. In order for Hellena to be accepted by her social context while in a contradictory search for multiple love experiences, she must maintain her virtue. At the end of the play, she is eager to secure Willmore's marriage vow, which, as a libertine, Willmore is obviously disinclined to offer. But her desire for marriage does not arise from a desire to share an intimate, monogamous bond with the domesticated libertine. Evidence of this can be found in his objection to Willmore's proposal to have sex without/before marriage: All you have to do is get my consent, and the deal is soon over. But.