The Rover

Even if Willmore, as the title character, is the play’s protagonist, the most interesting action of the play arises from the orchestrations of the women as they seize their own agency. Each of the women must work from within the patriarchal system to get what they want by negotiating the limited societal roles that women are authorized to perform: wife, nun, or sex worker. Each role is about providing women with male protection and authority, whether under a husband, a priest, or a pimp.

The dominos begin to fall at the beginning of Act I when Florinda, who is the most conservative and obedient of the women, decides that she has had enough and will rebel. Hellena, who is already rebellious in nature, builds her own personal rebellion on the hopes that Florinda’s lover will have a good-looking friend to help her escape the path that has been chosen for her. Both women shed the protection of their brother—because like all the men in the play, Don Pedro is too entrenched in the rules of the patriarchy to make decisions that are truly best for his sisters’ happiness.

In order to be with Belvile, Florinda must take the initiative of planning and enacting her own escape. Belvile wants to help her, but he proves inept, allowing his friends to drink and bungle his attempt to follow her directions. Hellena cannot count on Willmore to stay focused on her long enough to woo her, so she takes matters into her own hands. Florinda and Hellena go out into the Carnival disguised. When Hellena fears that she is losing Willmore, she dresses as a boy to get him away from Angellica.

For the most part, the women in in the play help each other instead of relying on the men. Callis risks her job and reputation to go with Florinda and Hellena to the Carnival when she was told to lock them up. Valeria helps them every step of the way by lying, providing costumes, and even thinking quickly to distract Don Pedro so Florinda can be saved from rape. Moretta speaks up and tries to get rid of Willmore for Angellica’s sake, even though Angellica scolds her for it. Florinda uses Frederick’s obligation to beg her forgiveness to push him to marry Valeria. The only real conflict between women in the play is between Hellena and Angellica over Willmore, but unlike the men who solve conflicts with their swords, the women resist turning their anger against each other. Even after Angellica is heartbroken and rejected, her reason for wanting to kill Willmore is about sparing future women from his manipulation. Instead, she decides to leave the work of destroying him to a future woman with the power to break his heart.

The play is about the way the women mitigate these roles to fight for as much personal agency as possible, but none of the options are ultimately good enough. For Florinda and Belvile, as the traditional romantic couple, freedom to marry each other has been the goal throughout the play. Florinda compares the two arranged marriages she escapes to slavery, and since either would have been essentially selling her for the family’s financial gain, forced marriage is akin to forced prostitution. However, the social and economic realities of a woman’s status make marriage the only choice for a woman, aside from the stubborn few who would prefer a convent. For Hellena, marriage is the only way she can avoid being cloistered, and she chooses Willmore because his desire to rove and avoid real commitment will ideally make space for her to do the same. She can only choose such a financially poor marriage because she has a large inheritance, which reinforces the idea that without the protection of social status, a woman is left with no agency at all.

The only woman who seems to have gained as much independence as possible is Angellica. She is reliant on men for money, but she also gets to otherwise control her own life. She does, however, remain emotionally vulnerable: Willmore manipulates and easily abandons her because he refuses to treat her as a social equal, even though her love is sincere. What is more, a woman who chooses prostitution is far more likely to end up like Lucetta, with a pimp and a lover and beholden to their direction. Although the play ends with three marriages, it also questions whether the institution of marriage is truly a happy ending for women like Hellena, who can paradoxically only secure more freedom for themselves by going from the legal control of one man (father or brother) to that of another (husband). In this sense, the play suggests that true agency remains elusive regardless of which path a woman may choose.