Eliza Haywood: Fantomina
After reading Fantomina by Eliza Hayood, we see a different perspective of women during these times than we had seen before. The first quote that stood out to me stated, “She was told by 'em all, that she was the most lovely Woman in the World; and some cry'd, Gad, she is mighty like my fine Lady Such-a-one, – naming her own Name. She was naturally vain, and receiv'd no small Pleasure in hearing herself prais'd, tho' in the Person of another, and a suppos'd Prostitute.” In The Duchess film, we saw that women were portrayed to only be useful when it comes to having a child. In this reading, we see a different perspective because the men are telling her that she is the most lovely woman in the world. This brings up the point that men care mostly about the sexual encounter, considering she was dressed as a prostitute when they were saying this. In addition, before she dressed up, no man would ever have said that to her but now that she looks like she has higher status, so they look at her highly.
The second quote that I pulled from this text stated, “I know there are Men who will swear it is an Impossibility, and that no Disguise could hinder them from knowing a Woman they had once enjoy'd.” I was shocked at how the woman could disguise herself so many times without Beauplaisir ever noticing. You would think if she had meant anything more to him than the sexual intercourse they had, that he would be able to see through the disguise and recognize her. In addition, she was so blown away by the affection that he had given her those few nights they spent together that she is willing to go through all of this just for him to not recognize her and see through her costumes.
Haywood, Eliza. Fantomina.
I really liked how in your analysis of the first quote you included information from the movie we just watched. Considering this, I would think of Fantomina as one of the mistresses the Duke slept with or even Bess. I think that those women were looked at for more sexual pleasures than the wives of these men, such as Georgiana. You elaborated on this idea really well in your next analysis, how if Beauplaisir had truly loved the protagonist, he would have recognized her. I find it especially funny because people mention to her how they look the same throughout the story, yet Beauplaisir never suspects her.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your mentioning of how we saw a different perspective of women in this text than other ones we have read so far this semester. You did a fantastic job of also connecting it to The Duchess of how most women were looked at the time and that was them being seen as people who would give males a child. Fantomina’s beauty and higher status were certainly key components to her being viewed as greatly as she was in the text and you hit on both of those points in a proficient manner when describing your first quote. In addition, you did a nice job choosing a good second quote that is actually really relevant to the story as a whole. Fantomina was able to go through all of these different disguises without Beauplaisir noticing and I completely agree with your thoughts of how if she meant more to him than just the sexual intercourse they had then he would’ve been able to as you stated “see through disguise and recognize her” which is absolutely true. Those few nights they spent together were indeed quality nights as indicated in the text and further described in your blog, so my guess is that Fantomina just enjoyed being viewed as a powerful, beautiful woman for once that it made her willing to just play along with this. That just goes to show how desperate women back then wanted to be on top, but also to show that women were smart, powerful, and wise as it requires all of those qualities and perhaps even more to pull off this remarkable stunt of being in all these disguises like Fantomina was.
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