26 pages • 52 minutes read
Eliza HaywoodFantomina
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1725A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Veil
The Lady wears a veil for her disguise as Incognita so that Beauplaisir is unable to see her face; she keeps this veil on even when they are intimate. Being that their encounter takes place in the dark, and has been arranged by two men posing as servants who have sworn Beauplaisir to secrecy, the further precaution of the veil seems unnecessary. Beauplaisir has already been deceived, moreover, by the Lady’s earlier disguises as Fantomina, Celia, and the Widow Boomer. Even though she has shown her face in all these disguises, it has never once occurred to him that she is the same woman.
The veil therefore seems to serve a purpose for the Lady that is more theatrical and psychological than it is practical. The veil is initially a coy accessory to intrigue Beauplaisir, and also to absolve him of any responsibility. In hiding her face while revealing her body, the Lady is making the nature of their relationship quite straightforward; Beauplaisir relishes the freedom inherent in this darkness and secrecy, before finally becoming frustrated by it. In this way, the veil is also a way for the Lady to take back some control, after the failures and humiliations of her previous disguises. It is a way for her to remind herself—as much as Beauplaisir—that she is withholding her true self from him. All of the elaborate measures that she takes to ensure secrecy seem to be for her own benefit, as much as Beauplaisir’s.
At the same time, a dark veil suggests mourning, shame, or both; in this way, it is perhaps more expressive than the Lady intends it to be. The veil shows the degree to which she has lost herself in her relation with Beauplaisir, even while she is trying to protect herself.
The Lady’s Face
We are told that the Lady has a memorably beautiful face; even so, Beauplaisir repeatedly fails to recognize her as being the same person, in all of her different roles. This may be in part because he lacks the imagination and observational capacities that would allow him to see beyond social barriers and traditional codes of behavior, and therefore to see why a society lady might want to disguise herself as a prostitute or a chamber maid. Yet it might also be because of the Lady’s face, and not in spite of it, that Beauplaisir is so blind to who she is. Her beauty is a sort of mask, which allows her to slip easily into different grubby identities, knowing that—because of her wealth, as well as her beauty—none of these identities will really stick to her. Her face serves to dazzle Beauplaisir into compliance, and at the same time makes him cynical and opportunistic. It is quite possible that he does suspect her deceptions, or at least finds her behavior to be a little odd; but that, because she is as lovely as she is, he simply does not care.
The Theatre
It is significant that the Lady’s adventures begin in a theatre, given the theatricality of all of her disguises. The Lady’s position in the theatre shows her elevated social status; she is sitting with her wealthy friends in a gallery box, a position that allows her to feel distantly intrigued by the prostitutes and their admirers sitting in a “Corner of the Pit” (Paragraph 1). The Lady is described as both privileged and inexperienced, and the sense is that her wealth has removed her so much from the world that she is able to see it is a stage, on which to experiment with different roles.
At the same time that the theatre suggests the possibilities of imagination and role-playing, however, it also shows the rigid social order that exists in the Lady’s world. The wealthy people sit high up in the theatre; the commoners sit far down below, and there is no possibility of the two groups mingling. The Lady is finally a product of this social order, despite her efforts to escape it.
Names
Haywood uses names—or the lack thereof—to add commentary to the characters’ social standing. The principal women in the narrative are nameless, only known as their position: lady, lady’s mother, aunt. The female characters have no greater identity than their positions, which the Lady supersedes with her adoption of faux names. However, the male object of the Lady's attentions, Beauplaisir, translates in French to “beautiful pleasure.” This name implies that he is both a desire and one that lacks true depth or value besides his charm.
Throughout the novella, the Lady adopts four personas—Fantomina, Celia, Widow Boomer, and Incognita—which identify her ruses and possess a greater symbolic significance. In French, fantôme translates to “phantom,” like a specter, but which can also refer to a figment of the imagination. The Lady's initial persona—that of the prostitute Fantomina—is the first figment of her imagination brought to life. Her next character, the maid Celia, is derivative of the name Cecilia, originating from the Roman name Caecilius, meaning “blind.” However, her stint as Celia is fleeting, demonstrating her shortsighted attempt to covet the gentleman.
When these personas prove unsuccessful in holding Beauplaisir’s attention, the Lady dons a more somber image, that of the Widow Boomer. The widow's married name, Boomer, is English slang for a “mistake” or “silly error.” The Lady almost blunders her efforts when she bores Beauplaisir with the widow’s sad story. She then turns to her final persona, the mysterious Incognita, a name that represents the female equivalent of “incognito,” meaning “disguised.” Incognita cloaks her identity behind a physical veil, which allows her to seduce Beauplaisir with greater intrigue.
