Angellica's Portrait

Angellica Bianca in The Rover by Aphra Behn and Nora in A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, both make difficult decisions that define them. Both women, because of their choices, are considered "immoral" by people in their own time and by some people in this time. Both women seem to have been forced into their decisions by cultural and social forces out of their control.

The Rover roamed the English stage for a century and has been rediscovered in our own time as a theatrical masterpiece of wit and daring. Aphra Behn (1640-1689) combined dramatic genius and training with personal experience that gave her rare insight into manners and roles. She spied on the Dutch for the English king and was once imprisoned for debt. Behn is one of the very few great English playwrights to be honored in life by popular scandal and in death by burial at Westminster Abbey. She was the first English woman to earn her living by writing.

Men, some to Business, others to Pleasure take;

but every Woman is at heart a Rake.

- Alexander Pope, "Of the Characters of Women

For me Angelica Bianca seems to fit both these statements to some extent; she is one and both at the same time. By looking at her interactions with characters and her position in society contextually I will show both sides of the argument and summarize

Women in seventeenth century Europe had few options in terms of marriage and courtship. They could not initiate relations with men, often their father or and or their brother/s would decide whom they would marry. Once a rich and respectable suitor was found a dowry payment was invested in the hope of a marriage. The youngest of daughters were often sent to convents in an attempt to reduce expenses, while at the same time ...