Social Liberty – The Restoration period breakaway from the Puritan adherence on morality. The play projects the festivals and celebration which was restricted during the Puritan age. The play is set in the Carnival stage where the major characters Hellena and Florinda who are in quest for their true love. It is not only women who enjoyed social liberty but also men. Many men and women during the Restoration period enjoyed life with engaging themselves into infidel relationships. The social liberty was at its highest peak where characters such as Willmore who is the rover of the play as well as Blunt who completely engaged themselves with a sense of true liberty of the age. Willmore was in love with Hellena but he was disloyal when he saw Angelica Bianca and seduces her to sleep with him. It made Willmore and Hellena’s relationship complicated because of Willmore’s character. Blunt is a man who was a victim of cheat and deception. Cheating scandals and lies were part of Restoration plays where Blunt fell in love with a local woman Lucetta who turned out to be a cheater for he fell into a sewer. This adds that both men and women enjoyed the social liberty to a great extent during the Restoration Period.
Gender Equality– Women were not given equal space and representation during the Renaissance age or before Renaissance. It was during the Restoration Period women starts to act on the stage taking the roles of a woman characters . In the play, the main driving force are the woman characters and the story revolves around Hellena and Florinda. Behn who is a female playwright has given equal platform to woman in her plays. The play also gives a sense of early feminist attitude where the decisions of a woman was taken by their parents or their brothers for the marriage and woman is not independent to make their own choices for marriage. Behn revolts such stigma where Florinda’s brother Don Pedro wants her to obey her father’s decision to marry Don Vincentio and her brother’s choice Don Antonio if she rejects her father’s choice. This reflects that woman’s marriage are dependent on their parents and their brothers approval but Florinda projects a typical feminist attitude of making independent choices for herself and to search for her love Belville. Feminist have tried to dissociate gender and sex where gender is continuously fluctuating and not fixed but a mere social construct. In the society, the action of a man is normalized and appropriate and hence Behn shows the gender fluctuations where woman also subscribes to the same action a man behaves in the society. Angelica Bianca is a woman who performs the same infidel action of a man who sleeps with Willmore and she Lucetta goes around to cheat man including Blunt which actually highlights the immorality of characters and they have been portrayed in such a way that their actions subscribes to the immoral and infidel behaviour of a man.
Love Intrigues– As a comedy of manners, there are love intrigues in the play. We have the love intrigues of sisterhood where Hellena , Florinda and Valeria shows a strong powerful force of sisterhood and shows love for another. They participate together by disguising themselves as gypsies in search for their love one’s especially Belville and later Willmore. There are also love intrigues between friends including Frederick, Blunt and Belville where these man also support each other for instance Frederick helps Blunt to capture Florinda whom they thought was a prostitute. The love intrigue between Hellena and Willmore and Angelica is complicated but Hellena and Willmore’s love eventually won at the end. The love intrigue between Florinda and Belville shows their strong powerful love for each other where Florinda breaks away from traditional norms just to be with him. They were engaged later and got married.
Immoral Behaviour – The immoral behaviour was a product of Restoration Period. Puritans suppressed immoral behaviour during their rule and hence the Restoration Period saw social engagement in sophisticated and superficial activities. In the play, man flirts with woman for instance Willmore flirts with Hellena and the prostitutes such as Lucetta who goes around seducing man like Blunt and cheats them off is a clear example of immoral behaviour activities. Comedy of manners have satirized the upper class society and Angelica Bianca belongs to the upper class where she sleeps with Willmore committing adultery which according to the Puritans will be immoral and the same action goes to Willmore as well.
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It’s very helpful for us . It includes the whole character of restoration comedy with compare the rover. And the language is very simple that everyone can understand. Thank you.
Thank you. Keep learning.