I just started thinking about my paper and I’ve decided that I’d like to focus on Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina . I’m not sure exactly what my topic will be yet, but I think I will be focusing mainly on gender and sexuality.

     Stephen Duck’s poem The Thresher’s Labour expresses the hardships faced by men of the working class. The poem emphasizes the physical pain and exhaustion a man feels when working in the fields. The poem discusses how early a thresher rises, and how he must work in unpleasant conditions day after day. The poem stresses that for a laborer the work is never ending, as each day is as difficult as the last; “Thus, as the Year’s revolving Course goes round, / No respite from our Labour can be found: / Like Sisyphus, our Work is never Done” (741).

     As a response to  Duck’s poem, Mary Collier wrote The Women’s Labour. Her poem expresses that working class men are not the only people who are worked to the bone. The poem discusses how working class women have multiple roles within society as they serve as wives, mothers, and laborers. Collier stresses that the working day for a woman doesn’t end when the sun goes down. Unlike men, woman are unable to relax in the evening as they need to cook supper and tend to the children; “Now Night comes on, from whence you have Relief, / But that, alas! does but increase our Grief; With heavy Hearts we often view the Sun, / Fearing he’ll set before our Work is done” (688).

Well, it seems we have a gross out competition taking place within the readings. I have just finished reading “The Gentleman’s Study” by Miss W- and it compares to Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room” on the gross out scale. “The Gentleman’s Study” features a curious character, in this case a woman, who enters a room of a noble man named Strephon and curiously pokes around. In the beginning of the poem the narrator claims that Strephon is “More nasty than the nastiest beast” (Miss W). In his study she finds nasty wigs, dirty towels, medicines for various sexual diseases, and even witnesses a rendezvous between Strephon and his valet Tom. This poem seems to be retaliation against Swift’s poem, and suggests that men are not always what they appear to be as well.

   “Yarrr, give me a treat or I’ll poop on your doorstep!”

 The readings that I found most interesting this week were the poems “The Lady’s Dressing Room” and “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” by Jonathan Swift.

     The first poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room” is a satirical poem about women and the perception that men have of them, perhaps during the courtship stage of a relationship. The poem features a male suitor named Strephon who enters the dressing room of a young noble woman named Celia.  The first two lines of the poem states that Celia’s morning routine takes her five hours: “Five Hours (and who can do it less in?) / By haughty Celia spent in dressing” (502). These lines suggest that women go to extreme lengths in order to look presentable when they are in the company of men.  As Strephon explores Celia’s room he finds her beauty remedies and her layers of clothing strewn about the room. It is clear that the more Strephon explores Celia’s room, the more disenchanted he becomes with her. He is grossed out again and again as he finds sweat stains on her clothes, bottles of makeup, and dirty face clothes. Strephon claims that any man who finds Celia sweet and clean is a liar or perhaps gravely mistaken; “But swears how damnably the Men lie, / In calling Celia sweet and cleanly” (503). The poem may be suggesting that after the flowery courtship stage of a relationship is over, women reveal their true selves, which is not as perfect as they initially appear to be.

    The second poem “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” seems to paint a similar satirical view of women. The poem features a woman who is the “Pride of Drury Lane” as she retires for the night (506). The poem describes the woman as she takes off her wig, fake eyebrows, makeup, etc. The poem also seems to suggest that woman put on a false front in public, and expose their true selves in private. I don’t know if Swift caught a glimpse of his mother taking off her false eyelashes, or was disillusioned on his wedding night, but he seems to be really be fixated on the way women physically present themselves in privately and publicly.

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I’m still reading the text! I must admit that I’m having a hard time because I’m finding it a dry read. Different strokes for different folks I guess!

Yeah yeah, I know that this is a late entry but I’ve been busy! It’s midterm time! Anywho, the antislavery narrative that I would like to comment on is “Oroonoko” by Aphra Behn.  I was familiar with the general story of “Oroonoko”, as I read a play a few years ago for Restoration Drama. I really enjoyed this narrative; I don’t necessarily read this text as antislavery. Although the narrator (Behn?) disapproves of slavery and the treatment of Oroonoko, the text seems to be written primarily as a romance. The description of Oroonoko is interesting, as the narrator describes him as having “white” physical characteristics; “His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat” (Demaria, 297). She describes Oroonoko by saying: “The whole Proportion and Air of his face was so noble, and exactly formed, that, bating his Color, there would be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable and handsome” (Demaria, 297).  Behn’s description of Oroonoko suggests that he is wonderful and admired because he displays European characteristics. It seems that the hardships that befall Oroonoko and Imoinda are tragic because they are noble and similar to Europeans, not because cruelty and slavery to any person is wrong.

I found the death of Imoinda heart wrenching! I understand that Oroonoko was afraid of what would happen to her once he died, but did he REALLY have to kill her? Imoinda was able to keep herself safe before his arrival at the plantation, so I really don’t think that her gruesome death was necessary. Also, Oroonoko chickened out of killing himself, thus prolonging his agony and defeat for a few more weeks.

            First of all I would like to say that I really enjoyed the readings this week under Amatory Fiction.  The reading that I most enjoyed and will discuss in this posting is ”Fantomina” by Eliza Haywood. “Fantomina” features “A Young Lady of distinguished Birth, Beauty, Wit and Spirit” who disguises herself as a whore in order to talk to men more freely (Demeria, 713).

                 In the beginning of the narrative it is evident that the young woman is inexperienced with men. While being disguised as a whore, her first encounter with Beauplaisir goes further than she had originally planned and she loses her virginity. However, as the young woman continues to deceive Beauplaisir she becomes more confident with men, and discovers he own sexuality.

            Although the young lady enjoys taking on the different roles and deceiving Beauplaisir, she becomes so immersed in the charade that she doesn’t realize that she too is being played. It is only after Beauplaisir responds to the various letters written by the young woman that she realizes her plans have backfired: “TRAITOR’ cried she, as soon she had read them” (Demeria, 723). For some reason the young woman is shocked to discover that Beauplaisir is cheater and a liar even though she was well aware of the fact that he was sleeping with multiple women!

            Although the narrative features a young woman who discovers a way to break free from the social conventions that restrict her, she eventually gets burned as her involvement with Beauplaisir leads her to become pregnant and later sent to a Monastery. She is unable to fully break the restraints of society and seems to be punished for her actions, while Beauplaisir goes on his merry way. Talk about unfair!

             The selections of poems that we looked at for class this week were written by Katherine Phillips, Aphra Behn, and John Wilmot. I was surprised when reading some these poems because of the explicit content! I particularly enjoyed reading Wilmot’s poems because they were the most entertaining. Wilmot’s biography within the text describes his poetry as “bawdy”, which I believe is the perfect word to describe it. Wilmot’s “The Imperfect Enjoyment” was definitely one of the more sexual poems and I was a little surprised at how explicit the content was within the poem. “The Imperfect Enjoyment” focused on the desire between two lovers and their quest for sexual gratification which is spoiled when the man is unable to perform. The poem features a woman who is just as sexually charged as the man. She has no qualms about expressing her desire for the man, which is interesting because women within this period were expected to be chaste and soft spoken.

            I must admit that I find it fascinating that Wilmot dared to write such racy poetry during a time when sex was not supposed to be openly discussed. It seems that he views sex and love as being separate from each other, as there is not mention of devotion or marriage between the lovers.