The City Jilt – Fall from Hopes

            In Eliza Haywood’s The City Jilt, the reader witnesses the main character Glicera transform from an innocent young lover to an avaricious and vengeful woman.  The major circumstances causing these changes in Glicera can be traced around her acquisition or yearning for money.  Early in the novella, she is heart-broken and deceived by her first love Melladore, and later allows herself to be courted by an older gentleman named Grubguard.  Glicera misleads Grubguard to the point of absurdity to achieve her monetary and vengeful goals, culminating with the acquirement of Melladore’s mortgage.  After she obtains the mortgage, she tells Grubguard, “I rais’d thy hopes to make thy Fall from them at once more shocking, and receiv’d thy Presents by way of Payment, for the pains I have taken to reform thee…” (Haywood 100).  Here Glicera’s sense of entitlement is exposed, as she defends receiving Grubguard’s “Presents,” despite accepting them under false pretences.  The author’s selection of the word of “shocking” indicates the extreme malevolence Glicera has projected onto Grubguard.  Glicera feels no remorse for the appalling way she has treated Grubguard, and indeed displaces her intense abhorrence from Melladore to him.  The “pains” Glicera mentions are ironic to the reader because she has done nothing without her own self-serving interests in mind, and the reformation of Grubguard has served only for the amusement of herself and her servant, Laphelia.

            Glicera’s wish for the “Fall” of Grubgard is strikingly parallel and reminiscent of her own tragedy earlier in the novella.  When Glicera’s father dies and she loses her perceived inheritance, “she regarded not this Fall from her high-rais’d Hopes, nor once imagined that the Loss of her Wealth would also make her lose his [Melladore’s] Heart” (Haywood 69).   For Glicera, this “Fall” from wealth changes her position in life, her monetary stability and her desirability as a wife.  Both Glicera and Grubguard are similar in that these disgraces both arise from losing wealth, but Grubguard’s defeat is ultimately caused by his own shortsightedness in giving Melladore’s mortgage to Glicera.  Glicera’s “Fall” is caused by events outside of her control, though instead of learning from her misfortune, she facilitates the same tragedy for Grubguard.  Both characters are connected by this “Fall” from their own expectations for future happiness and luxuries directly dependent on personal wealth.

Works Cited

Haywood, Eliza. “The City Jilt.” Three Novellas. Ed. Earla A. Wilputte. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1995. 65-103. Print.

Aphra Behn “The History of the Nun”

Kristen Eggen

Professor Gabbard

ENL 6455

3 February 2010

             “The History of the Nun” by Aphra Behn explores the contradictions in one woman’s life, beginning with her devout dedication to the church and ending with double-murders and her death by beheading.  This woman, Isabella, is a study in maintaining social expectation while disregarding personal motivation.  The author sheds light on this aspect of Isabella’s character during her premeditated murders by writing, “But when fate begins to afflict, she goes throughstitch with her black work” (Behn 186).  The word “fate” here implies that Isabella believes there is an outside influence apart from her control causing her to commit these horrible crimes to the men she married.  In believing “fate” to be the reason for her crimes, Isabella can attempt to lead a life where she is absolved of guilt and can maintain her innocence in the eyes of her community. 

            Isabella’s use of “fate” is ironic because the murders she committed were one of the very few actions in her life chosen by free will without the influence of others. Every previous aspect of her life can be traced to an outside influence guiding her and influencing her decisions.  The murders, however, are the only actions by Isabella that she is wholly responsible for; the reader witnesses her planning the murder of Henault, the execution of suffocating him and then attaching his body to Villenoys, and the concealment of the truth to her community.  This action could be seen as Isabella’s rebellion against the men she allowed to lead her in life, as a subconscious way of gaining freedom from all who may manipulate her in the future.  Regardless of the motive, “fate” cannot be a believable cause of these deeds that were premeditated and consciously committed.

            In this passage, the word “afflict” is also significant as it personifies “fate” as a force that works against her and causes her the grief she feels.  Again, this choice of words shows Isabella’s desire to act as a victim to a force that has caused her to commit terrible deeds, instead of recognizing her own guilt as a sinner.  She continues this delusion by thinking “O, what fate, what destiny is mine? Under what cursed planet was I born, that Heaven itself could not divert my ruin?” (Behn 187). Accepting blame for her actions would undermine the persona she has worked her entire life to create, that of a pious and innocent woman.      

   Works Cited

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko and other Writings. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994.

Pinchwife – town vs. country

Kristen Eggen

Professor Gabbard

ENL 6455

20 January 2010

Word Count: 429

                        In William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, much of the plot

pivots on Pinchwife and his underestimation of his new bride Margery, in

turn highlighting a stereotypical view of country people held by Londoners

in the play.  This “country” status appears to be the sole reason Pinchwife

chooses to seek Margery for his bride; he has hopes that she will be more

ignorant and innocent than girls from his own background in London.  In

speaking with Horner, Pinchwife says, “At least we are a little surer of the

breed there, know what her keeping has been, whether foiled or unsound” (1.

1. 411-413).  The metonymy of “breed,” as a direct representation of his wife

as a mere animal, reveals the disrespect he carries for her and, one assumes,

all people from the country.  Also noteworthy is his use of the phrase “a

little” when discussing the purity of his new wife. This is indicative of the high

level of distrust he feels for all women, though he is slightly more contented

with a wife from a country upbringing.       

                        One is given the impression that Pinchwife’s status as a Londoner

grants him an arrogance in thinking it impossible to be tricked by a woman

who is from the country.  He believes sincerely that “A fool cannot contrive

to make her husband a cuckold” (1. 1. 462-463), referencing his greatest fear

and paranoia throughout the play.  It is partly this dismissive nature that

allows Margery to escape blame from writing two letters to her “gallant,”

Horner.   Pinchwife is aware of her feelings for him but believes her to be

incapable of devising a plan that would injure his pride through an extra-

marital affair.  Interestingly, throughout the play Margery seems to believe

the stereotype about the country while simultaneously defying it.  While

struggling to create a plan that would veil her interest in Horner, she says,

“Can one have no shift? Ah, a London woman would have had a hundred

presently” (4. 2. 160-163).  This is said in earnest by Margery, speaking her

mind while alone on stage.  She believes a woman from London would be

quick-witted and clever, even though one finds that in the next lines in the

play Margery devises an ingenious plan to defy her husband and achieve her

own objectives.  Margery similarly outwits Pinchwife on numerous

occasions throughout the play, exposing his gross misjudgments and false

stereotypes of her country upbringing.

    Works Cited

Wycherley, William. The Country Wife.  Ed. Ken Bush. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

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