Does The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless Correspond to Haywood's "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love"?
"''Tis strange,' said she to herself, 'that a woman cannot indulge herself in the liberty of conversing freely with a man, without being perswaded by him to do every thing he would have her.' . . . 'People,' cried she, 'have naturally an inclination to do what they are most forbid. The poor girl had a curiosity to hear herself addressed, and having no opportunity of gratifying that passion, but by admitting her lover at so odd a time and place, was indeed too much in his power to have withstood her ruin, even if she had been mistress of more courage and resolution than she was.' On meditating on the follies which women are sometimes prevailed upon to be guilty of . . ." Haywood, Miss Betsy Thoughtless, page 121
"When Love finds Entrance in a Mind, such as these Ladies were possest of, it becomes indeed a most vile and wicked Passion, and its Effects are dreadful to Earth, and detestable to Heaven, and when it takes Possession of a Heart all Gentleness and Softness, it then grows fatal to itself.-- Women shou'd, therefore, but with the utmost Caution entertain it; not all the Dictates of Religion, Reason, Virtue, Interest or Fame, being seldom of sufficient Force to combat with that more prevailing Tenderness, which seems inherent to the very Nature of her Sex: . . ." Haywood, "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love, page 121
The context of the above passage of Miss Betsy Thoughtless displays Betsy's reflections on her friend, Miss Forward's, recent troubles concerning the other sex. It is the outcome of this scenario, as well as inferences drawn from Haywood's Fantomina, that really connected these two quotes for me. The outcome for Fantomina and Miss Forward are the same in both situations: the men are able to get away with indecent behavior, while the women are found out because casual sex doesn't have the same repercussions for men as it does for women. Haywood repeatedly mentions that "how much greater Force that Passion influences the Minds of Women" ("Reflections," 115), and I believe that is what leads her to her ultimate conclusion on the last page that women should only entertain passion and love with the "utmost Caution." Of course, it is curious to note how closely linked passion and love are, though I would consider love and lust inspired passion to be quite different. Haywood mentions this earlier in her "Reflections," that when a man is found to fall for a woman "who boasts no other Merit than her Beauty," people are apt to "lay the Fault on Love" (109). Personally, I took this as the basest form of attraction, or what contemporary society would term as lust. It's interesting to see the differences in eighteenth century norms contrasted to the views of modern society, especially in terms of gender inequality.
Though our class has not yet finished Betsy Thoughtless, I'm eager to read on and see how Betsy's love life and multiple suitors play out, especially in context to these other works that we have been exposed to. In addition to that, I wouldn't be opposed to reading more autobiographically on Haywood -- what was her own love life like, to inspire such situations? Did she believe in love? Or was she of the "third Sort," who "believe the Passion nothing but a Name, the Chimera of a distemper'd Imagination," on the grounds of having never felt it ("Reflections," 107)? I find it extremely appropriate that this quote mentions a "mental imbalance," especially in light of how far neuroscience has come. In the jargon of firing neurons and hormonal imbalance, it's fitting that love was described this way so early.
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