Fantomina- A Woman in Control of Her Destiny?

With regard to the Eliza Haywood story Fantomina, the depiction of the titular character has several readers and scholars questioning whether or not she is in control of her own life. Whereas she faces punishment for her affairs, the male object of her affection avoids being shamed for his actions. However, Haywood's story only serves to critique society for its harsh, judgemental, and strict treatment of those who do not adhere to 19^th Century norms.

For 19th Century audiences, the behaviour of “Fantomina” would be considered devious, scandalous, and certainly unlady-like. However, apart from her deceptive methods and affairs, she acts assertive, headstrong, and sexually-confident in her efforts to get what she wants. One such example would be her using of wearing Venetian masks (in the vein of Carnival) to the theatre, which was became more associated with prostitution over time. While she is immoral for her affairs, she is monogamous and madly in love with the man of her dreams. As the object of Fantomina's affection, Beauplasir is the oblivious, dimwitted male love interest in the manly way. He has his own series of affairs, but his womanizing is practically overlooked by society in general. While Fantomina is discovered and punished in the end, Beauplair manages to escape the consequences of his actions. Either he will be too embarrassed to tell anyone about the scandal, or he has a great story to tell his friends and laugh about.

With regards to the ending, Fantomina is shipped away to a convent by her mother, but she seems trapped in her stifling environment. Beauplasir is somewhat relieved that the daughter is being dealt with, but he promises to pay support for the child. Eliza Haywood was a career woman who pioneered the idea of female writers and suffered as a result. Is she really going to be critical of a character that does it? In reality, she is being critical towards society and its social conventions. In most stories written during this period, both the female and male characters were guilty of doing the same thing, but the man had more leeway than the woman and tended to escape punishment.  Some stories, such as Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, depict the characters as reforming and living comfortably at the end. However, we can view it as the treatment of men and women; the former is embarrassed while the other is scorned for life. Whereas Fantomina is placed in a convent, Beauplasir is humiliated by the discovery (as well as his being duped).

For these reasons, it is clear that Fantomina was in control of her own life and prone to using several methods to achieve what she wanted. Although deceptive in her actions, it cannot be denied that she was assertive, confident, and madly in love with Beaplasir. The ending is realistic in its depiction of what happened to young unmarried women who got pregnant, but Haywood is using it to criticize society in general.