Nature Of Female Passion example essay topic

Is female passion dangerous, or is it a form of empowerment? Historians and critics often look upon the 18th Century as "The Age of Reason". However, it may be more accurate to say that the century was marked by two main impulses- reason and passion. This notion is explored most explicitly in Austen's "Sense and Sensibility". However, it is interesting to consider the issue of female passion in texts that do not so overtly deal with the topic and are more ambiguous in nature. Defoe's "Roxana" provides a tale of a woman who has sold her virtue, at first unwillingly for her survival and later for her status and wealth.

This is difficult to deal with in light of the copious amounts of didactic conduct literature of the period. As the text suggests "A woman ought rather to die, than to prostitute her Virtue and Honour, let the Temptation be what it will". The "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", or "Fanny Hill" as it is often known, is superficially very similar- a na " ive young prostitute that rises to respectability. Conversely their characters could not be more different, and the distinctions between them raise important questions of female passion and its consequences.

It is probably necessary in order to consider female passion to ascertain what is meant by the term. Vivien Jones suggests that for passions we should "see sexuality". This is interesting in terms of Roxana, as the perhaps modern day expectation of passion in its sexual sense is absent, juxtaposed with her curious lack of maternal instinct for her eleven children. Hunter refers to Roxana's curiosity as intellectual, social and physical. Despite this, her inherent coldness seems to ultimately make her incapable of passion, yet she employs the products of such to her advantage.

Fanny fits more easily into this idea of female passion, with her swooning and violent fits of passion". 'My life! - my soul! - my Charles!' - and without further power of speech swoon'd away, under the oppressing agitations of joy and surprise". A medical dictionary, some five years prior to the publication of "Fanny Hill" refers to "hysteric a"- hysteric passion which "Reason, Experience, and the Authorities of the greatest Physicians, concur in pronouncing Matrimony highly beneficial in removing hysteric Disorders". Female passion is therefore seen as dangerous and it is necessary to constrain and repress it.

However, although Fanny Hill is an openly sexual, passionate character I would argue in some ways it is a conservative text. Despite its obvious scandalous, sensational content, Fanny still manages to abide by traditional roles assigned to women in the 18th Century, upheld and encouraged by the conduct literature. The scene that describes Fanny and the other girls of Mrs. Cole's performing provides parallels to a polite dance at a ball. "As soon as he had disengage'd, the charming Emily got up, and we crowded round her with congratulations, and other officious little services; for it is to be noted, that though all modesty and reserve were banish'd the transaction of these pleasures, good manners and politeness were inviolably observ'd: here was no gross ribaldry, no offensive or rude behaviour, or ungenerous reproaches to the girls for their compliance with the humours, and desires of the men... ". Even though the girls are outside traditional moral and virtuous boundaries through their profession, they behave as though they were in polite society.

Similarly, it seems although Fanny cannot fulfil the requirements expected of her in her chastity, she does in other aspects such as her fidelity, honesty and obedience. The paradoxical character of Fanny in these terms, presents a great threat to contemporary society, as Fanny has a place in society. Fanny 're wins' her domestic life and lover in the end, travelling from a lower-class prostitute to a virtuous married lady. This can not be said of Roxana.

At the beginning of the novel everything is satisfactory. "I wanted neither Wit, Beauty or Money... ". Her state actually worsens throughout the narrative showing a linear progression of events, contrasted with the cyclical nature of Fanny's life. Shinagel claims Defoe's sudden, rather required ending to the novel implies "clearly the novel did not turn out the way he intended it... The repentance theme is never developed by Defoe and the closing pages deteriorate noticeably with the ending coming as a penitential second thought rather than evolving out of the action".

This is obviously debatable as the repentance theme arises throughout the novel, implying without it Roxana will never be happy. Perhaps from this we can see some kind of guidelines of what kinds of female passion is acceptable. Female passion (it is suggested) should be constrained within the bounds of matrimony. Defoe claims in an essay two years after Roxana, "more Encouragement to matrimony" by the Law should be made. Women's primary role as mothers and wives is frequently reiterated, implication that women's sexuality is deviant, unnatural and surplus to requirements.

Conversely it was common belief that orgasm facilitated conception, so enjoyment similar to Fanny's sexual empowerment was acceptable but only when constrained in this way. Fanny Hill does experience some constraints under Mrs. Cole's guidance, which suggests female passion is dangerous when unleashed. Fanny's incident with the sailor is outside Mrs. Cole's "safe haven" and she is reminded:" But when I got home, and told Mrs. Cole my adventure, she represented so strongly to me the nature and dangerous consequences of my folly, the risques to my health, in being so open-leg'd, and free of my flesh, that I not only took resolutions never to venture so rashly again, which I inviolably preserve'd; but passed a good many days in continual uneasiness lest I should have met with other reasons, besides the pleasure of that re counter, to remember it... ".

Of course there are economic reasons for Mrs Cole to dissuade Fanny from these adventures but there is also the notion that within this utopian space the girls inhabit, they are protected. Yet conversely, they are restrained but for their own good. Similarly Lousia's encounter with the "Idiot" highlights that when she strays from her own protected territory, her passion is not as convincingly idealistic. Some recent critics have seen Mrs. Cole's commune for the girls as "a never-never land of well-bred gentlemen and elegant whores... presided over by good fairies who are madams" yet this scene taints the strictly positive, enjoyable, safe presentation of sexuality that has been constructed throughout the novel.

Although Fanny has been described as "an ideal of both male and female fantasy: a woman who is extremely exciting to men, who delights in her own sexuality" she is ultimately submissive in her sexuality. Whilst Roxana could be seen to be actively pursuing her wishes (or at least through Amy), Fanny is passive in that things come to her. This can be seen in the somewhat trite extended metaphor of Fanny as a boat that comes to port at the end of the novel. "Thus at length, I got snug into port, where, in the bosom of virtue, I gather'd the only un corrupt sweets: where, looking back on the course of vice, I had run, and comparing its infamous blandishments with the infinitely superior joys of innocence, I could not help pitying, even to the point of taste, those who, immerse'd in a gross sensuality, are insensible to the so delicate charms of VIRTUE, than which PLEASURE has not a greater friend, nor VICE a greater enemy... ". Especially considering her passivity, this notion of Fanny as a boat hints at, the agency of Fate, or at least a pre-ordained existence.

Consequently it is not her passion that empowers her yet nor does it restrict her, cause her problems or difficulties. Meanwhile Roxana is inhibited by her passion for fame and fortune, in that her avarice means she can never truly repent though she knows she is wrong. It is important to note men wrote both "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure and Roxana". This will have an obvious effect on what is intimated about the nature of female passion.

Spacks discusses what women thought of women's sexuality and states; "Social facts changed rapidly during the eighteenth century, but at the century's end as at its beginning, society drew an absolute line between virtuous and non virtuous women". However she sees Fanny as "totally un virtuous". Fanny somehow seems to retain her innocence and the fact that she is returned to her original and first lover helps to gloss over the debauched aspects of her teenage life. "Passion represents as shocking danger for a woman: if she admits her feelings, she may be unable to preserve her propriety, to set limits to her yielding".

Fanny does not feel this danger when submitting to Charles, through her innocence of the ways of the world. Roxana is counselled by Amy "Honesty is out of the Question, when Starving is the case; are not we almost start'd to death?" Roxana is constantly reminded of her virtue and the consequences of her succumbing to a life of vice. Considering these arguments, perhaps we should return to the nature of female passion. Its threat seems to be instilled in contemporary society, with writings of insatiable, lustful women that have no reason. "Besides, they [women] are much more amorous than Men, and, as Sparrows, do not live long, because they are too hot and too susceptible of Love, so Women last less Time, because they have a devouring Heat that consumes them by Degrees". Female passion is then perhaps dangerous if it translates itself to promiscuity.

These notions of it being constrained, seen in "Fanny Hill" ultimately envisage marriage. Fidelity in marriage is especially important for women given "In short, she is only to Conceive, to give Suck and to breed up children". The wife is relied upon to give the rightful heir in the patriarchal society of the 18th Century so it is perhaps in society's interest to fear and repress female passion. However another important distinction is between that of a wife and a whore. The polarization of these two figures female passion even further. We can measure both Roxana and Fanny against the conduct textbook ideal and discuss their merits and failings infinitely yet in reality, the two have very different roles in society- a whore as a "vehicle" for men's pleasure, a wife as associated with domesticity and motherhood.

Mandeville writes of the inclination of the 18th Century to put women on a pedestal as wives and demonize whores. "Young girls are taught to hate a Whore, before they know what the word means". By creating these extremes, there is no place for female passion in a wife; female sexuality is deviant and unnatural. 'Natural' femininity was apparently a kind of asexual, submissive virtue, advised the conduct manuals. In preparing women to be appealing sexually to a man, they should repress their sexuality.

Fanny Hill replicates her virginity to Mr. Norbert, who "had fallen into a taste of maiden-hunting, in which chace he had ruin'd a number of girls, sparing no expence to compass his ends... ". Virginity ultimately highlights the innocence and absence of female passion, which is why it was so sought after. Consequently female passion should be a form of empowerment, but it is not because 18th Century society will not let it.

Roxana finds financial freedom through her exploits but still must rely on men to, for example, transfer money from country to country. Fanny is empowered in that she is not sexually repressed, as were, no doubt, the products of the conduct literature yet in the end she is restored to a happy, domestic setting. Female passion is presented as something mysterious, inconstant and unnatural as there is no place for it. Obviously I have only considered female passion in the extreme in Fanny Hill and Roxana, but Fanny manages to escape unscathed. She presents the idea that female passion is dangerous, but dangerous for men who wish to uphold this patriarchal, male-centred world, in that Fanny's sexuality is not deviant, dirty or immoral. Or rather, perhaps this the only boundaries in which a sexually explicit novel could exist, even underground- with a moral template in which Fanny is returned to a conventional marriage setting with a happy ending.

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811, Oxford World's Classics) Daniel Defoe, Roxana (1724; Oxford World's Classics) Vivien Jones (ed. ), Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity (Routledge, 1990) Paul J Hunter, Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth Century English Fiction (Norton, 1990) John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-9; Oxford World's Classics) R. James M. D Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity (Routledge, 1990) Michael Shinagel, Daniel Defoe and Middle Class Gentility (Harvard University Press, 1968) p 193 Spacks, Patricia Meyer " 'Ev " ry Woman is at Heart a Rake' ", Eighteenth Century Studies, 8.