Elsa M.

Philip
2021/8
Prof. Dr. Devjani Ray
15 November 2022

Q: Discuss Hellena as the female rover in the play “The Rover.”

Aphra Behn, the author of the play “The Rover,” was one of the main female
playwrights of the late seventeenth century when men were dominating the world of
literature. She composed plays according to the female perspective about the verifiable parts
of the ‘Restoration society’ where women were confined to certain roles and even
commodified. Her plays especially “The Rover,” feature strong female characters who assert
themselves with charm and wit and are successful in putting their ideas into action. Males
are, of course, on the receiving end of these schemes. With Hellena in the play, Behn
addresses a defiant and clever woman, who considers opposing such limitations forced on her
by society. Behn’s play deals with, as critic Angela White observes, “a woman’s struggle to
define herself during the restoration.” Considering all these, this paper attempts to discuss
how Aphra Behn tries to depict Hellena as the ‘female rover’ in this play.

Hellena is a clever, determined youthful Spanish aristocrat who has been

designed for a devotional life. She would rather not become a devout woman as she says to
Florinda, “And dost thou think that ever I’ll be a nun?... Faith no, sister….” In the opening
scene, Hellena also asserts that she should be allowed to live her life as she proposes, and
tells Florinda that she wants to know whether she loves Belvile, because she hopes he has
"some mad companion or other that will spoil [her] devotion." She is mesmerised by the
notion of love as she tells her sister that she finds it "very pretty to sigh, and sing, and blush,
and wish... and long and wish to see the man." Hellena resolves “to provide [herself] this
Carnival, if there be e’er a handsome proper fellow of [her] humour…” despite
Florinda's disgrace at first. We can also see Hellena’s desperation and rage, in her talk with
her brother which makes him call her a “wildcat.” Hellena speaks more as someone equal in
language and attitude to the libertine men of Restoration England. She sets out for the
carnival and tracks down Willmore and is more than happy by his wits and great looks. Even
though she had to face disappointments in her love for Willmore, Hellena still makes plans to
pursue him. She is worried about Angellica's moves as the two are competing for Willmore.
She is determined that she will not lay down with Willmore until they are married, and the
‘male rover’ at last had to surrender to her.

From her conversation in the opening scene and her attitude towards the then-
traditional beliefs, Hellena does not appear to be the kind of woman who wishes to marry and
live a life of a ‘restoration wife;’ but as we can see, she yearns to have relationships with men
and hates being told or surrounded around by them. She is, as the critic Dull refers to, “a
rover as” - very much like Willmore. Obviously, she values her opportunity and freedom, and
it subsequently comes to some degree as a shock when she demands that Willmore must wed
her. Although Hellena admires her potential and desires to break free from the tradition that
binds her with her father and brother, one could argue that she still needs some sort of
dependence. She can avoid being under the authority of her father and brother, giving herself
some relief through an alliance with another man that enables her to gain some sort of power
in that restoration society since at that period women who were unmarried were considered
‘items.’ It could be because of this, that Hellena demands Willmore to marry her. Hellena
challenges what critic Mary Astell observes in 1706, “Women indeed cannot be properly
said to choose. All that is allowed to her is to refuse or accept what is offered.” Here, Hellena
acts determinably and turns down what was offered to her by her family and chooses her own
partner to live with.

Hellena’s libertine qualities are very clear when she meets Willmore disguised
as a gipsy woman. This is very much evident from the conversation between Willmore and
Hellena as she plays the same game Willmore throws at her through wit and humour. For
instance, As Willmore says “Dear, pretty, and I hope, …will you tell an amorous stranger
what luck he’s like to have? And she replies “Have a care how you venture with me, sir, …
English humour that an Italian fortune will please you” And they continue to banter back and
forth. Their romance starts right away. Willmore and Hellena are both searching for a
favourable circumstance at the carnival. We can see that, at the point when he shows up on
shore, Willmore lets the other cavaliers know that his “business ashore was only to enjoy
[himself] a little this carnival” implying that he is in search of a female company on the
island. Hellena’s outrage at being treated badly, her interest in love, and her longing for men
connect the libertine features of these two characters together. In her article, Fights examines
how a focal issue for Behn, “was to figure out the strongly various results of libertinism for
ladies.” Hellena, the profligate woman, interprets her feelings as "confirmation that she is
alluring" while also compromising her feelings of the character, while Willmore, the
profligate man, thrives with sexual success and neglects to yield anything consistently
beyond the occasion. The plot makes this distinction clear because Willmore genuinely
desires both Hellena and the fair concubine, Angellica Bianca.

At the point when Hellena gets out of the conventional female view of her
day, her difference from the other two ladies, Florinda, and Angellica Bianca happens as
expected. Hellena teaches Willmore a lesson by intellectually matching him and surprising
him rather than being envious of seeing Willmore with another woman. Along these lines,
she continues to oppose Angellica directly, who tries to endanger Willmore's life out of envy.
Angellica is brilliant in her own ways, but Hellena possesses both the qualities of wit and
intelligence on par with Willmore's.

All in all, we have analysed how Hellena rebels against her brother and the
nunnery to try not to be controlled. We have seen how she rejects the traditional honour that
women of her era were expected to uphold, which frees her from constraints while still
allowing her to win the male rover, Willmore. Finally, we have examined how her rejection
of traditional female roles positions her in contrast to the other women and has a positive
effect. As all other female characters in the play push at the limits of personality attributed to
them, we come to see that a woman’s temperament is not held back inside a title, whether it
be a sister, whore, or housewife. Critic Helen M. Burke observes this as “Behn uses the same
basic triangular configuration of virgin/whore/cavalier as Killgrew.” Behn’s intention by
doing so is to show that women cannot be simply boxed into labelled categories as and how
we wish, as Killgrew did. An example is that the women also can take on more bold
‘cavalier’ role, as Hellena does.” In any case, Behn shows that living “joyfully ever after” in
a male-centric world is not a simple task, and it is just Hellena’s mental fortitude to rebel that
makes it conceivable. Thus, as critic Dull observed Hellena can be considered as a female
rover.

References:
1. Behn, A. The Rover (994) Edited by Anne Russell. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada:
Broadview Press. p. 36-42.
2. "The Rover". Archived from the original on 21 December 2013.
3. Department of Theater, University of Minnesota, BFA Seniors Production, 2012,
Directed by Joel Sass. "Thinking Cap Theatre".
4. Monagan, Susie (12 April 2017). "Ithaca College Theatre Presents 'The Rover'".
Ithaca College News. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
5. “The Rover,” Aphra Behn. Edited by Asha S. Kanwar and Anand Prakash,
Worldview critical editions.