Aphra Behn The Rover Essay

The 17th Century was a glorious time for art, a time when Love with a capital L was being thrown around and cherished as the end-all be-all of what literature is about. To some extent, I do agree with this. Now, during this time, there were a plethora of male playwrights, poets, and “lovers.” There were hardly far and few between. This is something I find to be strange seeing as modern day art consumers are more or less women. This alone is the reason I decided to look into a female playwright by the name of Aphra Behn whom I’m sure faced much scrutiny in getting her works penned, read, and published, at least in the same manner than her male counterparts did. Her work The Rover was of particular interest to me and therefore shall be the topic …show more content…
The main character, Wilmore, is the rover. He spends a majority of his life sailing the ocean, going from town to town with no exact destination in mind. I believe there 's an allusion that the King is onboard with him, nodding and hinting at Behn’s past in his court as well. Through the entirety of the work, he is back and forth between multiple ladyfriends, highlighting a constant theme of courtship though doing so in a very lax manner. It is so bad that he spends one moment with one woman, then runs to another seconds later. Behn was definitely poking fun at the easygoing nature of men, and I would almost argue it was tongue in cheek in its show that men could do these things during that time and nothing was thought of it, yet women doing the same things would be …show more content…
Willmore is definitely a player that shows straying thoughts throughout the work, however the fact that he marries her in the end implies that the end-all, be-all of love is that those who remain consistent in their engagement will end up together in love and married. Hellena, a dame who more or less professes her attraction to Willmore’s back and forth nature, is another beacon to the assertion that even though she went against her families wishes, she still happy in her life and is content with her marriage to Willmore. Overall, The Rover written from a female authoer highlights an interesting spin on the ideas that Love through dating and pure admiration are just as valid as the male-oriented ideas that love is a conquest instead of a journey to be had between two individuals. Behn also did a splendid job of showing the intricate distaste yet the unfortunate situations that many women dealt with in their family relations and how many women managed to handle their way out of