Eliza Haywood\'s Fantomina

In Catherine arts essay, she attempts to examine the possible encode of distaff discourse to fall the effects of gender on writing (822). Craft argues that Eliza Haywoods Fantomina portrays the once move, forever fallen story (828) as Fantomina in conclusion succumbs to her masquerade and becomes the very amour she sets out impersonating. Fantomina takes on peerless dis dissembling after other to secure Beauplaisirs short-lived and waning affections. The subtle sarcasm therein lies in the circumstance that although her impersonations rise in status, however she becomes more readily available. Craft points out that this plays out the formulaic male sexual delusion (829) that likewise ultimately culminates into Fantominas fall from grace, as she becomes publically exposed and sent of to a convent (829). \nYet, what is unconventional is the degree of granting immunity Fantomina possesses with respect to the women of her time. Craft argues that her masquerades argon a re sistance to the rife social and moral codes (830), a portrayal of the empowerment of women. Fantomina is not repulsed by her actions, simply quite a prides herself upon them as a intended act of her choice. Yet, through the guise of this seemingly empowered female endowed with a massive amount of liberty, Craft also contends that the novel carries deeper underpinnings of the powerlessness of women, as portrayed through the characters of Fantominas disguises who are victimized by the male sex. \nCraft asserts that marriage ceremony should not be the desired ending to the novel as it undermines the womans autonomy. She reads the move off of Fantomina to the convent not as a punishment for her misdeeds, but rather a prolongation of [the] female society, to a place where Fantominas pleasures and freedom will suffer no abatement (832). She concludes: Writing with womanly artfulness and deceitfulness, [] women novelists manage to embody, inside ...