The very form of the sentence doesn't suit her. It is a phrase made by men; It is too large, too heavy, too pompous for female use. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Virginia Woolf, in her collection of essays, "Modern Fiction". Eliza Haywood's novels are important documents not only of women's history, but also of the social and moral tensions of their time. Her stories are usually told with a remarkable amount of what Mary Anne Schofield calls "narrative energy" (116), detailing the plight of a woman whose stories of passion and conflict are told by a world indifferent to her as woman. She was an "aggressive writer", who made important comments on the position and role of women during the eighteenth century. This was a pivotal moment in history for women as writers. They had absolutely no rights, no individual existence or identity, and the very act of writing, especially for an audience, was in essence an assertion of individuality and autonomy, and often an act of defiance. Writing was meant to be; it was to create and exist. It was about building and controlling a vision of the world without the interference of men. No writer could ignore this concept, she had to know the consequences of writing and being a woman, and almost all of them felt obliged to defend themselves from this attack (Spender 3). Dale Spender, author of The Mothers of the Novel, suggests that because early novelists and playwrights came from all walks of life, they did not belong to a small, privileged class; their experiences in writing were more representative of their gender as a whole (3-4). It also raises the idea that most novels written in the 18th century were written by women and that men were "not amused by the importance of women" and used female pseudonyms to try to find a privileged way to connect with women women. printing, which happened exactly the opposite one hundred years earlier (4). Ros Ballaster has a different take on the foundation of women's writing, stating: "The novel, identified at every stage as a 'female form', was, in this period, perfected by purging it of its disreputable associations with female sexuality and subversion subversive". power of female ingenuity or artifice" (Ballaster 3)If women's writing is important to the history of the novel, the novel is no less important to the history of women's search for a public voice. In the eighteenth century it was a means important for the articulation of women's concerns, and its rise was linked primarily to the growth of an acceptable female literary voice within a patriarchal society Jane Spencer, a feminist and author of a book that seeks to empower the voice of women writers, he says in his book, The Rise of the Woman Novelist, "Any study that treats women writers as a separate group must explain the reasoning behind [Women writers] entering a realm of discourse that had long been dominated by men, imitating, or contrasting, or influencing the work of their male contemporaries, and it could be argued that they would have been better studied alongside them; men" (ix). Spencer seeks to demonstrate in his speech that women's writings were no different from men's, in style, theme, or content, and that women actually occupied a special position in their writings because they were able to use their work to influence and counter stereotypes within their positions as authors, placing them above their contemporaries“feminist” was not a word in this time period, it is difficult to read 18th century women's writings as feminist writings. The nature of women and their appropriate role within society have always been the subject of serious debate, and many women have taken positions that could have been described as feminist roles. Because of the low esteem of women's intellectual abilities in general held in the male cultural tradition, one writer seemed, by the very act of writing, to challenge received notions of femininity, and thus engaged in what Spencer terms "feminist discourse" ( x). When women writers were accepted, it was on the basis of their femininity, and the kind of praise they received varied depending on their readers' conception of that quality, so that for some people women's writing implied eroticism, for others purity. it should confine itself within the circle drawn by prevailing notions of the feminine, and authors should distance themselves from the examples of those precursors whose femininity did not fit the fashionable definition (Spencer 75). Modesty among women writers became an important term of praise, confining female desires. Spencer writes that in the eighteenth century "the morality expected of a woman was more severe, her style was expected to be limited to natural simplicity in a way that that of a man was not; and her modesty was of a very high order. different" (78). Women's writing was bound to suffer once fear of everything they did was considered desirable evidence of their worth, and the requirement of female modesty might even nullify the effects of all other encouragements and prevent some women from write or publish. . Women's reading was thought to make them more rational; to enable them to think rather than feel and to make them better equipped to perform their domestic function (Ballaster 198). Haywood's ability to use her writing to motivate and empower the voice of female desire during this time period was a revolution for all women. . Haywood believed that women should be given equal opportunities with men for education. “Eighteenth-century society associated female authorship with inappropriate public display, sexual transgression, and the production of inferior texts” (Saxton 8). Haywood defended the treatment of her texts as inferior on the charge that women were not adequately educated and, therefore, should not be expected to write on subjects beyond their general knowledge. In his writings he spoke of much more than simply love and desire; she was making a statement about female sexuality and gender inequality. Janet Todd points out, "By the mid-eighteenth century the writer who wanted to please the public realized that she had to describe feeling, not sex" (146). But Haywood challenges this idea and writes her novels full of girls at the mercy of men, devastated by their own desires and vulgar sexual suggestions in those who have already fallen. George Whicher describes Haywood as one who exploited a form of libertine sexuality, attached to the acquisitive motivations of men, which will ruin the unfortunate virgin (16). Contrary to this belief, Haywood simply embraces the form of female desire, protesting the confinement of women in the eighteenth century. It showed the impact of its era in treating marriage, not romance, as the ideal outcome of love. Fantomina illustrates many of the same themes as Love in Excess, but changes the characters' roles to give the power of desire. to the female characterinstead of masculine through the art of masquerade. In her novels, Haywood examines the lives of unmarried women during the eighteenth century and shows that single women who did not conform to the standards set for them were treated as bad examples of their sex and even as immoral and scandalous women. If a woman didn't want to spend her entire life being treated like a commodity, she had to find a way to escape the constraints of tradition and patriarchy. Through the use of masquerade and deception, many of Haywood's characters manage to do just that. The idea of ​​virtue is treated as a burden to women, and some characters freely renounce their virtue, while others steadfastly maintain it, making them vulnerable and subject to greater consequences.consequences. Disguise is an important feature in Haywood's novels. It is used by female characters as a means to gain control or power. More specifically, Haywood's female characters often misrepresent themselves as a means through which to achieve sexual power and even achieve sexual gratification. Many of Haywood's female characters are unable to distinguish between truth and lies, or to penetrate the veil that divides reality and appearance; as a result, their ability to protect themselves from abuses of power is limited (Merritt 22). However, Haywood's most interesting female characters are those who find ways to exercise power in their role as sexual objects or who attempt to overtly appropriate the benefits of male subjectivity. Fantomina and Love in Excess are not simply tales of sexual escapades, they represent women as beings capable of desire just as much as men are. Theories of the masquerade often highlight its ability to challenge gender, political, and social hierarchies. In her influential study, Terry Castle makes a strong case for the subversive potential of the masquerade, especially for women: "With the anonymity of the masque... the eighteenth-century woman made an abrupt exit from the system of sexual domination... In the exquisite merry-go-round of the meeting room, the woman was free to circulate not as a commodity put into circulation by men, but according to her own pleasure. The masquerade was in fact a microcosm in which external forms of sexual subordination had ceased to exist. The masquerade symbolized a kingdom of women unmarked by patriarchy, unmarked by the signs of exchange and domination, and independent of the prevailing sexual economy of eighteenth-century culture" (255). Love in Excess is probably the novel that critics believe first established Haywood's reputation. as an authority on the “vicissitudes of erotic desire” (Merritt 27). This story is full of passion, complete with predatory males, often driven by ambition or self-interest, and innocent, victimized women. It is made up of three parts and the first two postpone the marriage of Count D'Elmont to the woman he loves. They are dominated by Alovisa's attempts to manipulate and control the courtship with her gaze. The story begins with Alovisa's attempt to direct D'Elmont's gaze precisely because he does not see her as the object of his desire. He is "not an object to be looked upon with certainty" (114), because all the female characters who meet him fall ecstatically in love with him. In the story, he is a man who cannot be trusted (Williamson 229). Haywood says that his is the kind of love "which regards its own gratification more than the interest, or quietude of the Beloved object" (131). Williamson says emphasizes that Haywood's criticism of male behavior is consistent and that she "comments that, although D'Elmont would be unfaithful to Alovisa, he blames her for his transgression" (229-230): "Man is a creaturetoo arbitrary to bear the slightest contradiction, where he feigns absolute authority, and that wife who thinks with bad humor and perpetual insults, to make him tired of what she would like to claim him from, only makes herself more hateful, and makes justifiable what was previously guilty in him" (133). D'Elmont sees his marriage as an obstacle to the fulfillment of his relationship with Melliora, another of his transgressions, because he is bound by his marriage to Alovisa, who he will only marry because of his fortune. Haywood uses D'Elmont as a female character to demonstrate that men can manipulate women as easily as women can manipulate men. Women were often the product of a loveless marriage for financial security, and by swapping these gender roles, Haywood is able to shift the blame onto the man's character, rather than the woman's Female characters in Haywood's novels are often placed in the show as eroticized objects of desire, seen in voyeuristic way by men, making them helpless victims of the male characters. Alovisas escapes this role only to become another form of passive spectacle, which is the "hysterical female body". Indeed, in terms of the ability to master the position of the spectacle, in Haywood, it is men who can manipulate the spectator/spectacle structure to occupy one or the other position at will (Merritt 39). The character of Melantha takes the element of masquerade to the extreme when she switches rooms with Melliora and pretends to be the woman D'Elmont desires most to have him sexually: Although the Count had only been for a very short time in the arms of his alleged Melliora, yet she had made such good use of it, and had taken so much advantage of its condescending humour, that. . .now he considered himself the luckiest of all humanity; . . His behavior towards Melantha was all ecstasy, all murderous ecstasy. (157).The fact that Melantha is the character who deceives the count represents a real role reversal. She pretends to be Melliora and willingly allows herself to be raped by the count. Perhaps she is the only female character in the novel truly capable of enjoying the affection he pursues. She is as opposite of Melliora as any other character. Once satisfied and convinced that he has taken Melliora's virtue, the count is shocked when Alovisa bursts onto the scene, followed by Melliora. When he realizes what is really happening, he is shocked. By having Alovisa brutally killed, Haywood is able to end part two with Melantha getting exactly what she wants, D'Elmont, and not being punished for it in the slightest. In fact, the reader is left to believe that it flourishes. Haywood does not punish his characters for using masquerade to get what they most desire. The heroines of Haywood's novels who do not fall prey to the male conspirator are the ones who manage to rival that power of script in their own person. Fantomina's nameless heroine thus learns to maintain the interest of the young man who first seduces her by presenting herself to him for seduction in a series of 'masked' disguises: a servant, a solitary widow, a mysterious masked aristocrat (Ballaster 205 ). The heroine notices the reaction of men towards prostitutes and realizes that she would never have the same reaction from them due to her bourgeois status. She decides to disguise herself as a prostitute to find out how men address these women. Behind the deception of the mask, she is able to have the freedom that Castle calls "a kind of psychological freedom normally reserved for men" (44). Only the masquerade provides a sanctioned space for "Fantomina", for "the elimination of mobility restrictionssociety of women" (Ballaster 188). The theme of rape appears in both Love in Excess and Fantomina. It seems that female characters who experience desire often find themselves rejecting the advances of the very men they so desperately desire. Both characters 'Fantomina' and Melliora. It is clear to readers that Melliora wants D'Elmont, but she does not allow herself to follow through on that desire. She even resorts to manipulation to stop him from raping her, saying, "O cruel D'Elmont! Will you then take advantage of my weakness?... Let my honor go free!" (145-146). Similar to "Fantomina", Beauplaisir takes away all her virtue with the threat of rape. However, her character is quite responsible for the rape because she is disguised as a prostitute. Likewise, what happens to 'Fantomina' is exactly what she was looking for in the first place: the desire to be desired. What is perplexing about these characters is the way in which they are completely vulnerable to own emotions because they are women. They are the weaker sex and can be raped. In the end Fantomina loses her virtue, but she realizes that she has nothing left to do but continue to demonstrate that she can still be desirable The heroine decides to continue her act of seduction through the masquerade. She is no longer a virgin, and may be responsible for the next masquerade, no longer an innocent victim of Beauplaisir. At this point she knows what she wants and pursues it vehemently. Madhuchhanda Mitra points out that Haywood "gives the heroine the ability to act on her desires while also granting her skills 'in the act of pretending'" (155). When Beauplaisir is ready to move on to his woman, the heroine quickly moves on to the next disguise, still unable to succumb to the truth of her identity. Disguised as a poor and unfortunate widow, she manages to seduce him once again, letting him believe that he is the seducer. Haywood successfully manages to allow his male characters to feel strong while his readers are always able to know who the fool actually is. However, Haywood appears to punish his heroine, ending his game with Beauplaisir, announcing that "She was pregnant" (68). The character becomes helpless, unable to continue her masquerade game, because she cannot hide something as obvious as a pregnancy. Is Haywood punishing his character for losing his virtue due to losing his virginity? Yes and no. Sooner or later, Beauplaisir would lose interest or catch on (though his intelligence is questioned by his failure to find similarities between these four characters). The game could not last forever because it began with deception. Perhaps if the heroine had seduced Beauplaisir under different circumstances with her honor and virtue still intact, they might have lived happily within the confines of marriage. Perhaps Beauplaisir's wandering eye (similar to D'Elmont's) would always long for something new and exciting. Haywood clarifies by emphasizing the fact that true love can never last on the basis of lies and disguises. Alovisa and D'Elmont did not marry for the right reason, and the marriage was not successful. Although women's fantasies, especially in fiction, include that women can become pregnant during a romantic relationship, they emulate men by making this a relatively minor consideration. in relationship, except in marriage, where, of course, one man's child may be mistaken for another's. Williamson points out that "Although women's fiction is often concerned with the outcome of pregnancy, it does not advocate for women's interests in its art, instead seeking to demonstrate how women can survive in a largely male universe., 1990.