The turn of the 18th century was the dawn of radical changes in ideology, burgeoning industry, and scientific progress for the Western world. Rapid changes and a growing middle class are expanding the audience for driving books. As more people gained economic security and access to education, more women were forced to look to the nobles as an example to follow. The emphasis on etiquette in polite English society serves as an indicator of how gender roles were socially constructed. A growing number of educated women meant the emergence of nascent feminist ideas. Eliza Haywood, one of the first writers of Amatory Fiction, stories of romance and sexual love, wrote Fantomina; or Love in a Labyrinth in 1725, in which the protagonist strives to seduce the same man several times. The young woman is Haywood's way of reclaiming the trope of the disgraced or persecuted young girl, so often used in Restoration fiction. The clever choices of disguise chosen by a morally reprehensible heroine allow conservative audiences to suspend their disbelief and delight in her antics. The role of these distinctive adopted personas reflects the way emerging feminist ideas in 18th-century England had to present themselves so as not to alienate a conservative audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Fantomina is in essence a story of sensitive experience. The heroine, whose identity is never revealed but is presented as "a young woman of distinguished birth, beauty, mind and spirit", is constructed as an ingenious but defined by her body. Unlike men, whose virtue was represented by their role in the public sphere, women's role was to have children, thus limiting their "value" to the private sphere. The virtue of the female sex was exclusively determined by her body and that is why women were supposed to keep it chaste. Conduct books often suggest that women should behave so as not to appear masculine. In each of her disguises, the heroine maintains a certain air of passivity, even submission, while actively pursuing Beauplaisir. She reverses the roles of active seduction by always maintaining an inferior position, making the man believe that it is he who is courting her. Additionally, women were also considered the more emotionally unstable sex, requiring them to be more strictly guarded against their own passions. Spontaneous or inappropriate conduct would undoubtedly lead to tarnishing a woman's reputation, and Haywood doesn't let her passionate protagonist act without consequence forever. She constructs the narrative in a way that would allow her nameless lady to embody the different profiles of single women, who would have different degrees of freedom in 18th-century England. The protagonist first crosses the boundaries of propriety by posing as a prostitute whom she aptly names Fantomina. She chooses to pose as a prostitute in the pit of the Playhouse in order to have the freedom to interact with men. Beauplaisir attracts his attention and they find themselves alone. This act would certainly cause an uproar among the upper middle class and aristocracy of the time, but she manages to somewhat retain her innocence at first, resisting Beauplaisir's advances. Her reaction is emotionally instinctive, as Fantomina, realizing that she has lost her honor, breaks down and cries. Her.