A Flower for Behn

I must ask Ms. Woolf one day if she wanted to strew flowers on Behn’s grave because she was one of the first great writers, to her knowledge, or whether or not it was something else. Or both…

But let’s have a small chat about inequality, she we? The financial side of matters. Like all things, from the foolish shutting down of universities to the creation of a great cathedral (which we just don’t do anymore), money plays a role which is even greater than the role salt has played in the world (which is pretty damn big). Those with money tend to get more, those without tend to stay so. Of course, there are some people who have existed – let’s call them “women”, shall we? – who have from time to time been entirely dependant on men to get them their means. This is the case with Philadelphia. Obviously she wins in the end, obviously she gets a handsome fortune and a converted rake to boot, but she is always dependent on men until she actually gets some of this money to become independent. And that money is from a man, too. This is a complication which I have, now, difficulty putting aside. The two instances of such are obvious: her brother has to pay her the 6,000l., and, once the old man dies off, he leaves her 20,000l. Behn is no doubt making a comparison between an honourable man and a dishonourable man, but it is impossible to separate them from their live doll Philadelphia. All of her power comes from the acquiesence and bestowal of some man or another.

Right, now that I’ve pissed off every feminist in the class, I can go on to say that, despite this complication, there is still a very feminist vein which is actually made stronger by it. First off, it makes the segregation of the classes into something which is completely fictional, and second, by putting Philadelphia in a position of power, she subverts the whole idea that power is given to the Sons of Adam.

So, let’s unpack these two a bit. Prostitutes, and those wrestrels who make use of them, are usually considered the dregs of society, oui? So Lady Beldam, our curator of brothels, should be taken as a very low woman. And yet, her house is definitely nothing of the sort – it’s fit for a king. But the people in there are as conniving as outlaws, and according to the Great Chain of Being, which still had some play during this time, outlaws were lower on the rung than animals. And yet there they are, proliferating in a big house and fucking each other on the virtuous pretence that “here are an hundred guineas for you; and I promise you Yearly as much, and Two Hundred with every child that I shall get on thy sweet body” (Behn on that website). If money is the only separating factor between the upper and lower classes, those who can run it like water can do whatever they like, but it really is just a temporary and worthless thing and doesn’t increase virtue one bit.
And what about the separation between man and woman? That is also a class and financial difference. Even the highest woman could have the potential of being lower and the lowest man, especially if there came into light the problem of inheretance or simply education. And it would, of course, be wild imagination for a woman to contend for a seat of Parliament (imagine that! a woman in parliament!). Once power is gained by Philly (I don’t want to type out that whole damn name anymore), though, she becomes the arbitrator of men. With a confidence that comes from having complete power, she plays with Fat-Acres and Thomas, and they, though they’re insulted, take the indignity like the proper subjects they have become: “The Lord and Knight were for going, but the Country Gentleman oppos’d it, and told ‘em, ’twas the greatest Argument of Folly, to be disturb’d at the Caprice of a Woman’s Humour. They sat down again therefore, and she invited ‘em to her Wedding on the Morrow” (same website). Now, isn’t this just like those folk in the world who’ll say “Damn you, government types!” and then do very little about it? Well, to give power like this to a woman rips away at the class difference between men and women, invalidating the whole thing in a fun little short story of romance.

And, of course, the Sons of Adam are left with their thumbs up their asses. That they end up this way is important to the whole subversive idea of a woman gaining power: her brother, if he had wanted to, could have run off to his old ways after he was free, or stolen all of the money that his sister had just married him into, but it’s obvious that he won’t do that. It’s also obvious that the idea of a sister marrying him to someone instead of him marrying her is a complete flip on the tradition. A mother might be plausible, but a sister would be out of the question. But the reason that this subverts the power that men are supposed to have is that it comes from man: women are equally capable of meeting and doling partial laws as men are. So there’s a flower for Behn, and another for good measure.