Aphra Behn 'England's first professional author' has been a highly controversial figure in terms of literary criticism throughout the centuries. The plays she wrote during the Restoration period were hugely popular on stage, while her novels and poems were also successful, albeit on a much more modest scale. However, under rigid Victorian standards, her work essentially disappeared from literary debate and did not reappear until the mid-1900s: by the 1940s, Behn's work was "little known, for she had lived under a cloud of Victorian disapproval for his erotic writings.” and his allegedly licentious lifestyle. However, by the end of World War II, "the type of female interest that now gave prominence to Aphra Behn as a pioneer of female professionalism was beginning to emerge." Behn used his work as a societal commentary, touching on politics, sex, money, relationships, power, virtue and ideals, but it seems to me that the main focus of his writings is on the roles of gender. The depiction of scenes in which women are raped suggests that women's subjugation to men conveys male sexual aggression during this period. In “The Rover,” Behn does this by examining the overt commodification of women not only by men, but by society as a whole; in Behn's eyes, women were often just as culpable in their complicity. Through the characters of Hellena, Florinda, Angellica and the traveling horsemen, Behn examines "commodification" by highlighting how men treated their women differently depending on social class and how women were objectified through prostitution, forced rape and arranged or forced marriages. rebellion against the commodification of forced marriage the... middle of paper ...... the product of virginity was held in such high esteem that talk of sex was relegated to that which took place for a price by a whore. Thus, both in marriage and in prostitution – two institutions generally considered comparable, women are used as objects of exchange. Although the institutions themselves may appear very different, the level of objectification is equivalent. And they are quite different from slavery, or even rape; there is in everything an inherent element of force perpetrated by the male: the virgin is forced into marriage; the prostitute, not being a virgin, is forced into her trade because she will never be considered marriageable and rape, of course, by definition, is about power and force. Even though Angellica lived in society, she was not considered part of society. Both are victims of male authority .