The Futile Position of Women's Power within Patriarchy in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze

Alexia Boyagian, Western University, March 2024

Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina or Love in a Maze, reveals the lived experiences of women in a patriarchal society in early eighteenth- century England. Fantomina is a character who is grasping for means of sexual power in which she cannot attain. What keeps her chasing after her Beauplaisir is not her love for him but rather the false power that comes with being with him for even a moment. Although she repeats many times in the story that she has power over him, it is clear to the reader that she does not. Even from the early pages of the story it is clear that it is Beauplaisir who is blissfully in control. Initially, his control is established by the brutal sex scene in which Fantomina’s description is extremely reminiscent of a modern day rape, where she is left to feel completely alone. As Fantomina continues to chase after him, playing as other people to become someone he desires, it is obvious that no matter what social class she inhabits she does not matter, as she is still a woman. The ending of the novel is the largest indicator of Fantomina’s powerless position as she becomes pregnant and is sent away to a convent while Beauplaisir’s life goes on. Eliza Haywood reveals her politics through her writing, identifying the faults in the patriarchal society in which she lived. Haywood portrays Fantomina’s chase of Beuplaisir as a universal representation of women's pursuit of power in a patriarchal society, which perpetually oppresses women with false agency, leaving them empty and powerless.    

Beauplaisir’s control over Fantomina is established very early into the text, setting the tone for the future of their relationship. Their sexual intercourse is portrayed as consequential, or a situation that Fantomina is unable to escape. Fantomina had, “gone too far to retreat:” and “---He was bold;---he was resolute: She fearful,---confus’d, altogether unprepar’d to resist such Encounters,...” (Haywood 4) Their sexual relationship is founded in a power imbalance. As this is Fantomina’s first sexual experience, she is learning what sex means to her. Beauplaisir has taught her that sex is about power and control and this is what motivates the rest of the text. From this point on, Fantomina is trying to regain control over their relationship, as well as her own sexuality, as Beauplaisir, from the moment they meet, has taken this from her. Subsequently, she is led to believe a false narrative that sex is power. She attempts to take control by inhabiting multiple personae through disguises in order to continue to have sex with Beauplaisir. This false narrative is what keeps her perpetually reaching for something she cannot authentically have in a patriarchal society. Paradoxically, her sexual liberty relies on the sexual validation of Beauplaisir which in turn keeps him in control. 

No matter the persona Fantomina inhabits, her position of power does not change. In order to continue to hold Beauplaisir’s interest, she takes on the role of a country lass, a Widow and a high class Incognita. No matter the class of her position, Beauplaisir only desires her for sexual pleasure and when he is satiated he becomes bored. 

“His [Beauplaisir] stay at Bath exceeded not a Month; but in that Time his suppos’d Country Lass had persecuted him so much with her Fondness, that in spite of the Eagerness with which he first enjoy’d her, he was at last grown more weary of her, than he had been of Fantomina;...” (Haywood 9)

As she transforms herself  it does not change the way he feels about her. Whether she is a mysterious high class woman or a sex worker, to him she is merely an object that he pursues in order to appease his own satisfaction. As it is implied in his title, “Beauplaisir”, he is a man after pleasure and this is exactly where the root of his actions lie. Fantomina, on the other hand, believes Beauplaisir to be a man who is capable of loving her, which keeps her in a perpetual state of wanting and needing for something she cannot have. Unfortunately, no matter who she becomes or what social class she inhabits, she is still a woman and that is the dominant social position which defines her existence. Beauplaisir see’s women as sexual objects and not as people who are worthy of connection. Haywood’s protagonist is delusional about the meaning of love because she is a victim of her own societal upbringing. Fantomina may believe she is the one in control, by tricking him into bed with the same woman, but she still cannot trick him into falling in love with more than her body. 

Fantomina’s desire to obtain Beauplaisir becomes rooted in his pleasure. Fantomina believes if she can obtain Beauplaisir through sex, she can obtain his love as well. To do so she will go through great lengths to manipulate him in order for them to be together even if their connection is inauthentic. Her goal is,

“...to engage him, to hear him sigh, to see him languish, to feel the strenuous Pressures of his eager Arms, to be compelled, to be sweetly forc’d to what she wished with equal Ardour, was what she wanted, and what she had form’d a Strategem to obtain, in which she promis’d herself success.” (Haywood 7)

She desperately wants authentic love which she believes if she can satisfy him sexually will only follow. In contrast, her language of how she will be able to gain this control is rooted in power and manipulation. Her use of words like “engage,” “success” and “straegem” do not align with what authentic love means. As her first sexual experience with Beauplaisir was one in which she was dominated and made to feel like her needs do not matter, she learned that sex and in turn love was about control and coercion. Her means to obtain him are a consistent battle in which winning Beauplaisir’s affection means she will finally get the agency back that she lost the first night they had sex. As an unmarried woman, Fantomina has much more to lose and although she may succeed in her goals, it is a false agency as it is not something she is capable of obtaining when Beauplaisir will always hold power over her. 

The only time Fantomina is seen outside of her characters is early in the beginning of the text and at the very end, when she becomes pregnant and is forced to tell the truth of her schemes. Her pregnancy confirms that in this society Fantomina will always be less than Beauplaisir. After all her fighting for power she will be forgotten. The person revealed to the reader at the end of the text, is weak, alone and powerless. When faced with having to tell the truth, Fantomina says, “Oh, I am undone! I cannot live, and bear this Shame!” (Haywood 19) Portraying Fantomina as vulnerable establishes that this has been her position all along. Through all the disguises and personae, she has been only grasping for power in hopes to make herself stronger. This is a plight that has been imposed upon her by Beauplaisir and the patriarchal society in which she is trapped. This is a society that is founded on the minimizing of women. By becoming pregnant, Fantomina’s value which, as a woman, has always been questioned in the first place, is immediately ruined. To hide this shame, Fantomina’s mother sends her to a convent in which Fantomina can bear the baby in hiding while Beauplaisir continues on with his life of seeking pleasure. Similarly to when they first had sex and Fantomina was dominated she has now been dominated in a different way. She has faced the ultimate price of her schemes, exemplifying that no matter how hard she tries to gain agency it is her own womanhood that will always prevent her from being valuable. 

Fantomina is described as “A young Lady of distinguished Birth, Beauty, Wit and Spirit…” (Haywood 1) although there is little shown of her in this light. Haywood deliberately uses this characterization as a device to disarm the upper class female reader and create familiarity to whom they may relate. Fantomina; or Love in a Maze was written as a Secret History. Secret Histories were a form that “appeared at the boundaries between fact and fiction, and between public and private worlds.” (Cowen 121)  Brian Cowen reveals two distinct definitions of a Secret History. The first is a literary style, “treated as a particular form of historical storytelling anchored by notions of authorship, canon, and genre.” established by Rebecca Bullard and Rachel Carnell. The second is a “certain style of political thinking… dedicated to unmasking the disguises adopted by political actors,” which was established by Peter Burke. (Cowen 123) Fantomina; or Love in a Maze arguably fulfills both distinctions. On the one hand, Haywood’s work fulfills the literary distinction, but most importantly she fulfills the act of political unveiling. Haywood unveils the true experiences of women, their agency and sexual identity in a patriarchal society. When Beauplaisir and Fantomina first engage in sex it is incredibly reminiscient of a modern day rape in which Fantomina does not appear to fully consent. Fantomina was,

 “...undone; and he gain’d a Victory, so highly rapturous, that had he known over who, scarce could he have triumphed more. Her Tears however, and the Destraction she appears in, after the ruinous Extasy was past, as it heighten’d his Wonder, so it abated his Satisfaction…”  (Haywood 5)

Beauplaisir achieves “rapturous” pleasure at the expense of Fantomina. To use descriptive words like “undone,” “Victory,” and “rapturous” portrays this in a distinctively aggressive way that forces the reader to question Fantomina’s safety; this on its own is extremely political. Haywood uses the story of Fantomina to represent the position of all women in order to “unmask the disguises” of a patriarchal society, even if she did not have a word for it yet. The fact that Haywood chose a Secret History as a means of communicating her beliefs is her own clandestine feminism. 

Under political interrogation, Haywood has claimed to have never been a political writer, although her work is embedded with political ideology that can truly be applied to today's culture. Haywood’s ideologies were revolutionary , especially in comparison to the way feminism has progressed in the past 50 years. Kathryn R. King believes Haywood to be an incredibly political thinker and a “beacon for celebrity-driven, voyeuristic, intrusive, sensationalistic, sex-obsessed, men-are-from-Mars-and-women-are-from-Venus media culture that we live with nowadays.” (King 198) King claims that Haywood was able to identify societal faults in a way that is under-analyzed by critics of Haywood:

 ...her almost postmodern fascination with the plasticity of sexuality as well as her distinctive take on the delusions of heterosexual love and the strange appeal of stalking your abusive lover, and I think it is safe to say that existing criticism has barely touched upon the richness of what Haywood has to offer readers today. (King 199) 

Haywood portrays the common experiences of the women of her time, in a way that is so familiar to the modern day reader. The scene where Fantomina is assaulted by Beauplaisir, as was mentioned earlier, is familiar to the contemporary reader and is incredibly politically relevant today. Haywood questions the dynamics of heterosexual relationships and ideologies that were not solidified prior to the last 70 years. Only in 1953 was rape considered an illegal offence in the United Kingdom and only in 1992 was Marital rape made illegal. (Noble Solicitors) For Haywood to portray this event as violating was incredibly controversial as rape between partners and towards sex workers was not even questioned in the 1700s. Haywood would be incredibly disappointed to know that it took almost 300 years for the law to recognize that women should have equal authority in their relationships. 

Haywood was politically ahead of her time, questioning women's place in society and writing Romances embedded with feminist ideology. This text is a very early interrogation of the premises on which women are shamed. Haywood reveals the nuance of women wanting to experience their own sexuality in a society which punishes them for doing so. Haywood was intentional and specific when writing Fantomina; or Love in a Maze, strategically writing in the genre of Romance to directly engage her demographic of women and slowly encourage them to question as well. Sarah Creel and Emily Dowd-Arrow argue that not much has changed from Haywood’s time to modern day Rape Culture. Creel and Dowd-Arrow discuss that in Haywood’s Love in Excess; or the Fatal Inquiry, “Haywood’s readers learn that seduction/rape is not the woman’s fault; it springs from false male perceptions of women” (Creel Dawd-Arrow) In everything she wrote, Haywood was working to de-establish the norms and ideas towards women that had been in place for hundreds of years. Only now scholars are examining her relevance under a contemporary feminist lens. 

Eliza Haywood is a founder of feminist ideology. In Fantomina; or Love in a Maze Haywood addresses the corrupt nature of a patriarchal society and women's position within it. The text highlights the inevitability of women's fight for power and the forces that work against them in order to keep women where they are. This story is not a strange romance, but rather something much bigger. It is a representation of women’s perpetual fight to be worthy in a man’s world. In a world where women’s voices were not being represented, Haywood digs deep into what it means to be a woman through the deliberate use of a Secret History. Hopefully, as women read Fantomina; or Love in a Maze they were able to see a fragment of themselves and their own experiences through the many facade’s Haywood’s protagonist occupied. Afterall, a feminist revolution started one woman at a time.    

Work Cited

“A Guide to Marital Rape Law.” A Guide to Marital Rape Law - Noble Solicitors, www.noblesolicitors.co.uk/about/a-guide-to-marital-rape.html#:~:text=Before%201992%2C%20forced%20sexual%20activity,of%20King’s%20Bench%20in%20England.  Accessed 28 Mar. 2024

Cowan, Brian, et al. “The History of Secret Histories.” Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 1, 2018, pp. 121–51. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/90019962.  Accessed 23 Mar. 2024. 

King, Kathryn R. A Political Biography of Eliza Haywood. Pickering & Chatto, 2012.

Sarah Creel, Emily Dowd-Arrow. “Seduction or Assault? Eliza Haywood and the Eighteenth-Century Rape Culture of Today.” The 18th-Century Common, 27 Mar. 2014, www.18thcenturycommon.org/eliza-haywood/.