How is Wit Defined and Portrayed in Aphra Behn s The Rover? C.S. Lewis believed Rational creatures are those to whom God has given wit (qtd.

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1 How is Wit Defined and Portrayed in Aphra Behn s The Rover? C.S. Lewis believed Rational creatures are those to whom God has given wit (qtd. Lund 53), a judgement stemming from its Anglo-Saxon origins. This allows the word to be applied to almost any positive aspect of the human mind which one associates with rationality. The Oxford English Dictionary deems it The faculty of thinking and reasoning in general, highlighting its broad descriptive qualities. In terms of Aphra Behn s The Rover, wit is shown as a critical and envied characteristic, necessary in the social advancement of a woman, and denoting a person of strong intellect, confidence, humour and logic. Hellena is the chief female proprietor of this characteristic, her moral strength separate to that shown by Angellica in physically threatening Willmore with her manipulating, attracting and influencing the events of the play with a sharp logic, sound reasoning and powerful intellect. The extent to which wit is portrayed as a concept furthering the female social position, however, is questionable. Hellena serves an agenda, providing an example to combat certain social norms rather than necessarily leading a challenge against them. Hellena s wit serves as an apparatus of attraction distinct in its contradiction to that which ignites the sexual desire of men most often in the play. Her face obscured, it is a sharp, perceptive personality and phraseology which initially grasps Willmore. She describes him as having an inconstant English Heart, as little worth stealing as your Purse (Act I. Scene ii. Page 179); an insult and insight which disarms him, enticing intrigue and surprise. His response of I have a world of Love in store Wou d you would be good-natur d, and take some on t off my Hands (179), shows his reaction to her 1

2 mystery and intelligence to be attraction. This attempt to impose his sexuality, however, is absorbed by Hellena s control of the situation, while his lack of subtlety in comparison to her knowing remarks is obvious. Not allowing him to identify her and emphasising her unavailability a foolish Vow I am going to make to die a Maid (179) makes him only desire her more, with the fact that she is fully aware of this she would fancy it very pretty to... long and wish to see the Man (171), so obviously shares his sexual desire, and thus is trying to manipulate him giving her the intellectual advantage. By controlling and manoeuvring Willmore, Hellena is changing the usual dimensions of seduction in this period. Therefore, the concept of wit serves to allow Behn to create an alternative sexuality which negates the male sexual aggression and establishes a female attractiveness deeper than the aesthetic. Wit is the means by which the female characters are able to fight with their male counterparts on the more even battleground of intellect, evading the threat of sexual violence. The exchanges of Willmore and Hellena operate like a duel; the object of the rover s affections using her wit to skilfully evade his initially lethargic blows, eventually twisting the skirmish toward her own agenda. Willmore, however, always possesses the ultimate weapon, his sexual aggression. In terms of disrupting the cultural routine of life beyond her own individual circumstance, the impact of Hellena s wit is far from all-encompassing. Findlay argues that this female wit speak[s] to current feminist aims to remake the city as a place where all women can participate in urban life (47), but the extent to which Hellena is challenging the city is questionable. Rather, it seems she adapts to find herself a place within it, setting an example which is potentially impossible to universally follow. Her mastery of Willmore in their exchanges is novel and liberating, but founded on her sexual openness. From the start she is seeking a man to spoil my devotion (172) which, while no negative from a feminist 2

3 perspective, means she cannot be an example against the main attack of gender dominance in the play; the rape culture. Willmore asking Florinda why at this time of Night was your Cobweb-door set open, dear Spider but to catch Flies? (208), as he attempts to rape her, is hardly a situation which can be resolved by wit. Consequentially, the possession of such characteristics is liberating, but not universally applicable to combating the dominating sexual violence. Hellena may have been able to manipulate Willmore into marriage, but only from a position of relatively low sexual aggression. Pacheco argues Behn has only a limited capacity to imagine a distinctly female subjectivity capable of negotiating the play's rape culture. (342). While this criticism assumes Behn was trying to create a dominant, allchallenging feminine character which wasn t necessarily the case it is clear Hellena isn t given a separate, female identity, but rather is endowed with wit to match and mimic the men. While her deployment of this has many merits, challenging the rape culture is not one of them. Thus she is limited in her relevance to challenging gender norms, leaving wit at least without a means to combat sexual aggression as a helpful tool, but a blunt weapon. Behn s portrayal of wit is intriguing so far as its liberating implementation exposes its defects. Hellena employs an entertaining and clever tactic to hoodwink, confuse and deceive Willmore, while Blunt s lack of wit is cleverly exposed by Lucetta. However, it remains obvious that with the exception of convenient trapdoors and firearms, the dominating characteristic in the play is not wit, but sexual aggression. Hellena fails to challenge the rape culture in the play because she cannot. She shows a certain level of sexual aggression in her interactions with Willmore, but it is always clear that only the male characters are capable of transferring from aggression to violence in any situation. 3

4 The scene of attempted rape, while not featuring Hellena, intriguingly queries exactly what aid her wit is if it weren t an accompaniment to her sexual openness. 4

5 Works Cited and Referenced Behn, Aphra. The Rover. Ed. McMillin, Scott. N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company Inc Print. Findlay, Alison. playing for all in the city: women's drama. Feminist Review, 96 (2010): JSTOR. Web. 7/2/14. Lund, Roger D.. Wit, Judgment, and the Misprisions of Similitude. Journal of the History of Ideas 65.1 (2004): JSTOR. Web. 7/2/14. Pacheco, Anita. Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn's The Rover. ELH, 65.2 (1998): JSTOR. Web. 7/2/14. Szilagyi, Stephen. The Sexual Politics of Behn's "Rover": After Patriarchy. Studies in Philology, 95.4 (1998): JSTOR. Web. 7/2/14. Wit. Oxford English Dictionary Online. Web. 7/2/14. < 5