Reading Fantomina reminded me a lot of the early American novels written by women that we went over in my American Literature course. I believe they were called "seduction novels" and they always carried a few of the same elements. There would always be a woman somewhat chasing after a man she wasn't supposed to be with, and the woman would always end up pregnant at the end, sometimes dying as well. We were taught to believe that most of these novels were written as "warnings" to other women against falling into the snairs of men set up for women, and that they will always find their doom in a pregnancy, which they sometimes deserved. Basically because I was already introduced to this time of novel, all I could do was try and pick out the same elements that Fantomina was "supposed" to entail. I pretty much knew that she would get pregnant in the end because that's how they all ended, and even though it seems like Fantomina could have been the "villain" because she tricked Beauplaisir so many times, my brain has been programmed to see the man as the jerk.

As far as seeing Fantomina fit in to our anthology, I'm not so sure that it does. I was surprised to see that a "novel" was included, but perhaps it's just because of my preconceived notion of what the novel is supposed to be. If anything, Fantomina was a short story, but maybe they just didn't write "short stories" then. Perhaps this narrative was not included in the anthologies previously because it was a novel written by a woman, and not particularly fascinating or note-worthy. Obviously it's written quite well, but I don't think the orginal "seduction novel" is very popular in our current studies of literature. Fantomina is about a woman who disguises herself to keep the interest of the man she pines for, then ends up pregnant in the end. Before my American Literature course, I had never been even heard of this type of narrative, while most of the other poems and authors we have gone over in this class I have already been pretty familiar with. I definitely think that Fantomina should be included in the anthology, and is "valuable" for our learning. Not to sound feminist, but the mere fact that this novel was written by a woman in the early 18th century, should be important. If this was the during the early developments of the novel, I also find it significant enough to include in an early English lit course. In fact, it was one of my favorite readings all semester just because it was readable, interesting, and on a subject that had not quite been tackled yet. That is, the negative portrayal of men made by a woman.

The character Fantomina seems a little naive on how to find a man she wants to be with, but she shows exactly how woman must have portrayed their husbands and lovers to be during that period of time. The man acts romantic and does a good job at seducing women, but he is never faithful. Even though technically the man is being faithful in this story, the point is that he thinks he is being with other woman and swears there is no one else in his life. Eliza Haywood must have been experienced with the notion that when men get bored they tend to stray, and this novel was her way of expressing it. In The Canterbury Tales we had some looks on the portrayal of men and women in The Wife of Bath's Story, but Fantomina really expresses exactly what women think of men, and the empowerment women wish they had over men, but could never truly obtain. In the end Fantomina was "punished" for her promiscuous ways, and the man was let off scott-free. I think it's important to see every view of human and sex interaction during this time through literature, whether it by man, woman, or child (?). Now that would be interesting.