Eliza Haywood was actually named at birth Elizabeth Fowler and she was born in 1693 and died in 1756. Haywood was an English writer, actress and publisher, anything else on her life is skeptical because she lived in privacy. Fantomina, was published in 1725. In Haywood’s writings, she mainly tries to convey a message of, “… tales … offered to woman readers, not as representation of reality, but as compensations for its deficiencies, including the disappointments of heterosexual love” (Staves 696). Eliza Haywood`s Fantomina: or, Love in a Maze, uses the power of disguise and sexual desires to control the man that she states she loves, though she might have not been aware at the time that her disguises will eventually cause her more heartache
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Bloomer, in this disguise, it becomes evident of the power Fantomina has on being able to change herself. Every time Fantomina changed herself it was because Beauplaisir was growing tired of her. This can explain why she changed so many times: “Haywood constructs her story around the idea that, because male and female desires are incompatible, the young Lady must compulsively refashion herself first to create and then to re-create a man’s desire” (Nelson 276). Fantomina is merely re-creating sexual scenes between them, with her different disguises in order to keep Beauplaisir pleased. This can tie into sexual roleplaying, though usually both parties are aware of the roles. Nonetheless, Fantomina sees it as a game that she excels at, “… she was so admirable skilled in the art of feigning that she had the power of putting on almost what face she pleased, and knew so exactly how to form her behaviour to the character she represented …” (Black et al. 640). Disguise, after disguise, she manages to change her appearance and behaviour as simply as doing anything else. The fact that she can do that says a lot about her true identity, this young lady most certainly does not know who she is and she is trying to figure it out through this disguises. She believes she needs to be someone else in order to be happy, “[s]he made herself, most certainly, extremely happy in the reflection on the success of her stratagems and, …show more content…
There major point to understanding the novella is that, “[t]he reader of Fantomina thus gets to have “female” and “male” pleasure, enjoying the spectacle of a series of animated sexual encounters powered by (her) constant love and (his) excitement at new conquests and by her skillful disguise and his blindness” (Nelson 279). The first disguise, of Fantomina The Prostitute, gives her a sense of power and freedom over herself, the man she desires and her sexual needs. Even though Fantomina created the second disguise, Celia is still somewhat a part of her original self. With the disguises of Mrs. Bloomer, Fantomina has managed to control her different disguises as well as her feelings, in order for her to change whenever she pleases. Incognita’s dominance over Beauplaisir has led him to feel malcontent and in the end realize how he was being played by the same lady. All her disguises only led to her heartbreak and because she was sent away in the end by her mother, she will probably never see Beauplaisir
Bloomer, in this disguise, it becomes evident of the power Fantomina has on being able to change herself. Every time Fantomina changed herself it was because Beauplaisir was growing tired of her. This can explain why she changed so many times: “Haywood constructs her story around the idea that, because male and female desires are incompatible, the young Lady must compulsively refashion herself first to create and then to re-create a man’s desire” (Nelson 276). Fantomina is merely re-creating sexual scenes between them, with her different disguises in order to keep Beauplaisir pleased. This can tie into sexual roleplaying, though usually both parties are aware of the roles. Nonetheless, Fantomina sees it as a game that she excels at, “… she was so admirable skilled in the art of feigning that she had the power of putting on almost what face she pleased, and knew so exactly how to form her behaviour to the character she represented …” (Black et al. 640). Disguise, after disguise, she manages to change her appearance and behaviour as simply as doing anything else. The fact that she can do that says a lot about her true identity, this young lady most certainly does not know who she is and she is trying to figure it out through this disguises. She believes she needs to be someone else in order to be happy, “[s]he made herself, most certainly, extremely happy in the reflection on the success of her stratagems and, …show more content…
There major point to understanding the novella is that, “[t]he reader of Fantomina thus gets to have “female” and “male” pleasure, enjoying the spectacle of a series of animated sexual encounters powered by (her) constant love and (his) excitement at new conquests and by her skillful disguise and his blindness” (Nelson 279). The first disguise, of Fantomina The Prostitute, gives her a sense of power and freedom over herself, the man she desires and her sexual needs. Even though Fantomina created the second disguise, Celia is still somewhat a part of her original self. With the disguises of Mrs. Bloomer, Fantomina has managed to control her different disguises as well as her feelings, in order for her to change whenever she pleases. Incognita’s dominance over Beauplaisir has led him to feel malcontent and in the end realize how he was being played by the same lady. All her disguises only led to her heartbreak and because she was sent away in the end by her mother, she will probably never see Beauplaisir