27/06/2023

Chaymae Mouziane

TAKE-HOME EXAM
Fantomina is a narrative of freedom and agency in the world; Pamela is a story of confinement and
agency on the page. Does this contrast reflect the grounding of the narratives in class status or does
it speak to evolving cultures of gendered identity?

Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) are two significant literary
works from the 18th-century that present opposing viewpoints on social class, morality and
therefore the agency of women. The contrast seems to reflect both the narratives in class status and
the evolving cultures of gendered identity.

Throughout the eighteen century novel the characters are often categorized by social class, and
valued according to it especially when it comes to women. Depending on their position in society,
women are faced with a number of expectations, possibilities, and restrictions. For instance, on one
hand, in Haywood's novella, the narrative follows the story of Fantomina, a young and unmarried
woman who takes on various identities, thought the mean of disguise, in order to have multiple
encounters with the same uncommitted lover. The image of women in the 18th century is to be
found in the private sphere and often associated with domesticity, which implies limitations in
terms of women’s interaction with the public sphere. This ideology of men and women occupying
separate spheres was supported by the convictions that natural inclinations proper to the two
genders make them more apt to these segregated roles. Other than the rigid restrictions of
interaction and freedom, a young woman, such as Fantomina, was also expected to end promptly
her compromising position of celibacy. Luckily for her, rules and obligations within the upper class
seem to bend under the power of money. In fact thanks to her privileged background she is able to
manipulate her environment and explore her sexual desires beyond the constraints of her social
standing.

Pamela, unlike Fantomina, portrays a character who is constrained by her social environment
within social barriers. Richardson’s book consists of a collection of letters from Pamela, a virtuous
servant, to her parents, who reside in the countryside. Her letters detail the different emotions she
experiences as she resists her late mistress's son's attempts to seduce her. Her resilience to the
temptation will be rewarded by himself, with a marriage proposal, that she hastily accepts. Her
lower status accentuates the necessity to preserve her virtue, the only leverage she possess and can
be respected by society.

Pamela’s situation faces a situation of having a male employer who thinks his class position
authorises him to abuse of her and who lacks supervision from an older family member. She is
therefore in a political prison because of her gender and social class, since servants were still
thought to have a ‘feudal relation’ to their landlord.

Starting from 30s and 40s of the 18th century, historians define a cultural turning point where
human behaviour transition to civilisation characterised by less prominent promiscuity and a
gradual introduction of politeness and the culture of sentiment in British society. Therefore the
notion of selfhood shifts from performative to genuine and sincere, which writers find to be
expressed the best in the form of epistolary exchange. In this framework of politeness Pamela,
exceptionally literate thanks to the fact that her father is a teacher, expresses her refined yet sincere
sentiments in the letters to her parents, which also serve as witnesses of her virtue. Her cultural
attainments, similar to his, also guarantee her a consciousness of her accomplishments and a certain
status connected to her writing abilities.

A key element in Fantomina is the masquerade which consists in a custom from the first decade of
18-century, connected with big social celebration parties, usually of the upper class. The
masquerade tradition is associated with the idea that someone would do something they wouldn’t
normally do. Fantomina uses the disguise in an act of performative selfhood. Being sincere does not
fit her narrative and contrary to Pamela, succumbing to her social restrictions, she prefers to
impersonate a character with more freedom, namely a prostitute. Her wealth plays a big part in the
liberty she has to perform her masquerade, a complex procedure that not only involves contravening
sartorial laws and fabric etiquette adequate to her status but also gaining access to spaces and
people. The masquerade culture in itself was conceived to better fit the female gender which has a
higher potential to change its status identity by the mean of clothes while male identity was thought
to be more stable and consistent in a determined social class. This can be easily explained by the
fact that literacy and speech were less accessible to women and therefore they were prone to the
social metamorphosis. The effects of the masquerade and transition between social classes are
destined to help the introduction in society of the bourgeoisie as a middle class, arising thanks to
industrial prosperity.
In conclusion, both works offer different social commentary on gender and class relations as well as
insights into the nuances of women’s lives throughout the 18th century. Pamela promotes the values
of chastity and moral integrity whereas Fantomina breaks conventions and explores female desire.