Hellena’s Character
In the play titled “The Rovel”, it is essentially evident that Hellena is the character that perfectly represents Aphra Behn. In essence, Alphra Behn believed that women had been trivialized in the society to an extent that their sexuality was used to humiliate them and facilitate the dominance of men. Importantly, she focused on the feminization of roles in the society such that women’s identity was mainly based on sexuality rather than character. Importantly, she has particular interest in the struggle that women have to undergo in order to fight for their space in the society and be heard.
In this regard, Hellena has been portrayed as a character with the same orientation and believes. Importantly, she comes out as a serious advocate of women’s rights and a portrayal of the struggles that women undertake. For instance, Hellena fatefully become a nun following a proposition that was made against her will. Actually, she tells Florida that she would really like to see her and Beville since she thought that he had bad companion which would spoil he devotion ( Behn, 42).. Now, the idea that she was forced to become a nun was not only an expression of inequality, but also an indication that women could not make their decision freely. She is also seen accompanying her sisters to the carnival whereby she had the chance to free herself from the social restraints and experience true love. Indeed, she is restrained by the patriarchal system but she embodies a strong will to break it and exercise libertinism. As a result, she ran away from home to stay away from continued intimidation and societal restrictions. Unfortunately, she ends up meeting with ill-minded Wilmore whose quest is to explore her sexuality but not to marry her. This further expresses the depth of female manipulation and exploitation by the society.
Aphra Behn’s life as evidence by Hellena
Analyzing in depth, there is a sense in which the experiences of Aphra Behn’s life reflect the ones experienced by Hellena. To start with, Alpha Behn was brought up in the Catholic faith (Todd 14). She is quoted saying that she was designed to become showing that it was not her decision but rather the instigation of her upbringing. This is the same case for Hellena based on the fact that she was also forced to be a nun although for her case it came to pass. In addition, Aphra, like Hellena was a determined woman who went beyond the patriarchal order to make critical achievements within a male dominated society. Actually, she once worked in a court of law whereby she had a chance to notice the double standards applied in this field of practice. Moreover, the two were betrayed by their colleagues for the sake of exploitation. In this case, Aphra was betrayed by Scot whereby he turned her into a spy while, on the other hand, Hellena was betrayed by Willmore. Importantly, both Aphra and Hellena moved away from their place of birth to experience life somewhere else.
Role of women in Playwright
The playwright clearly portrays the role of women in the society in the age of restoration. In this case, it was evident that women were seen as sexual objects to be used by men for sexual pleasure. In other words, their existence in the society was objectified as being subjects of their male counterparts.
Work Cited
Behn, Aphra. The Rover. Restoration Comedy. Ed. Trevor Griffiths and Simon Trussler. London: New Hern Books, 2005.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1997. Print.
