Fantomania and Inspecing and Spectating: Monsters, Rarities, and Investigations

In Fantomania, does Haywood portray sexual inquiry as an impertinent disruption of the status quo or an opportunity for licensed transgression? 


“She could not forbear laughing heartily to think of the Tricks she has play’d him, and applauding her own Strength of Genius, and Force of Resolution, which by such unthought-of Ways could triumph over her lover’s Inconsistency...”
-Pg 283 Fantomania

“By analyzing the prose fictions by Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manly and Eliza Haywood… this chapter shows that early modern literature shifts from portraying sexual inquiry as an impertinent disruption of the status quo to providing it as an opportunity for licensed transgression.”
-Pg 21 Inspecting and Spectating: Monsters, Rarities, and Investigations

   

    At first reading the second quote I was perplexed. What does it mean to use curiosity as a “opportunity for licensed transgression”? I certainly did not finish Fantomania and feel that curiosity was being condoned to any degree, it did not allow the lady to conquer her lover nor lead her to anything but ruin. Honestly, I immediately thought of the scene in Mean Girls where a teacher was giving a sexual education lesson and stated, “Don’t have sex or you will get pregnant and die.” It seemed like a similar message was being related in this text, “Don’t be curious or you will get pregnant and be sent to a nunnery.”
    Throughout Fantomania curiosity very much retains it’s early connotations. It was used to explore knowledge which one really had no business exploring eg. the experiences of a prostitute. It was not a disciplined practice rather the whims of young girl. The individual who was curious was not a highly respected member of society nor a scholar. Interestingly, we see curiosity conceptualized as both lust and greed.
     The lust which Beausplaisir experiences is heavily dependent on the novelty, the uncovering of that which was unseen, it was curiosity as lust. After this curiosity was satiated it abated.However, the curiosity in the Young Lady functions more according to curiosity as greed, as she goes to greater and greater lengths to satiate it. 
     I was taken back by the ending and immediately presumed the author meant only to equate curiosity with a failed attempt to challenge the status quo. However, I suppose this ending may have been used because of societal restraints on how Haywood could explicitly portray female sexuality. Haywood tacitly implies throughout the bulk of the story that curiosity could be used to gain control over men and even over love itself, as illustrated in the first quote. Curiosity allowed the Young Girl to become an agent in her own sexuality, rather than an object as was the norm during the time. The Young Lady manipulates Beausplaisir's curiosity, successfully for a period of time, to make the man fulfill her wishes. Haywood did use curiosity as an opportunity for licensed transgression but it was insinuated in a subtle insidious way. It's as if she means the exact opposite of what she is saying explicitly, like the box office ticket seller telling their friend, "You should not sneak into the theater through the back door that employees leave unlocked to take smoke breaks." This text is a unique example of a literary snap shot taken mid stride during the transition between conceptions and perceptions of curiosity.