bankrupt. There are no other relatives that want to help their family. Roxana has to fulfil her five children need. She faces economic hardship as a single parent.
Roxana become a mistress in order to survive and fulfil her family needs. Roxana turns her beauty and talent to advantage.
Roxana is also described as an independent woman. Though the upper
class women live in prosperity, they are under men‟s control. Roxana becomes poor because her husband‟s irresponsibility. She decides to be a mistress and does
not want to be under a man‟s rule. Roxana collects a lot of money from some rich men so that she can build her business. She thinks that woman has the same right
as man has. She wants to prove that she able to handle and run business. According to Donna J. Guy in her article entitled Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful
Daughters. Guy stated that prostitution is linked to religious beliefs, family survival, and patriarchy authority. However, women choose prostitution to find
independence, provide an income or control their own sexuality 1998: 181. From Guy‟s statement, the writer sees that family is based on patriarchy
system. The husband is controlling the family. Because of women has low status in patriarchy society, many women are forced into mistress for helps the family
economically. They choose to be a mistress to find independence, survival and control their own sexuality. Guy sees this condition as common object at the time
of patriarchy authority in Victorian era. This condition also happens
to Roxana‟s life. Roxana is portrayed as an upper class woman in 1800s. She comes from a patriarchal family. Her husband is
dominant in the family. Everything he said is right. Roxana‟s opinion for saving
their family business is not accepted by her husband. Then, the business is bankrupt. They become a poor family. Her husband is irresponsible and leaves the
family. The middle class society prefers to leave the business for the son, husband,
or other male relatives who are capable of it. The middle class women have limited choices and jobs. They should be a wife or mother doing home activities
such as sewing and cooking. To be independent and helps the family economically, Roxana chooses to be a mistress because she can provide income
and control her own sexuality. Moreover, the desire of Roxana to run a jewellery business shows that she, as a woman, has the same right as men to run a business.
She is determined to be a businessperson through the jewellery business she deals with several businesspeople most of them who are men, therefore it proves herself
to be bold and independent. What men are capable of doing in business, she even proves that she can succeed in jewellery business that has been dominated by men
in that time.
C. Roxana’s Characteristics and the Description of Women’s Lives which
Show Roxana ’s Hardships in 1800s
In this part, the writer will explain Roxana‟s characteristics and the description of women‟s lives in England show women‟s hardship in the 1800s.
Daniel Defoe wants to reveal the women ‟s hardship through his novel. Roxana is
the main female character of the story. Roxana experiences hardship as the effect of patriarchy, marriage arrangement, and prostitution.
Roxana is an educated and smart woman. However, she lived during the patriarchal system which has been rooted in England for a long time, and which
still took place the period of 1700s-1800s. Fathers have the highest position in the family.
Though the upper class women live in prosperity, they are under men‟s control. Fathers determine who his daughter should marry. Roxana has arranged
to marry her parent‟s chosen husband. Roxana was fifteen when she got married with a Brewer as seen in the following quotation.
At about fifteen years age, my father gave me, as he call‟d it in French 25,000 livres, that is to say, two thousand ponds portion, and married me
to an eminent brewer in the City…Defoe, 2000: 2.
W omen and men‟s marriage has been much influenced by a patriarchal
system in the society. Roxana‟s hardship is caused by men‟s domination. Her
father forces her to marry a Brewer for her bright future life. In the contrary, her marriage life is not happy as her father wished. Her husband is an irresponsible
man. He leaves Roxana and his five children in poor condition. This analysis seems to be related to Travelyan‟s theory in A Shortened History of England
1959: 318, he discussed for marriage. It is still exception for women of the upper and middle class to choose
their own husband and when the husband has been assigned that he is lord or master, so far at least as law custom make him Travelyan, 1959: 318.
It also happens to Roxana whose life is controlled and determined by her husband, her husband does not allow Roxana to give opinion or suggestion to
manage his business as seen in the following quotation. “First, and which, I must
confess, is very insufferable, he was a conceited fool, Tout oponiatre, everything
he said, was right, was best and was the p urpose” 1998: 3. Due to there is a
patriarchal system in Victorian era, women experience hardship is obviously seen in the novel.
Women ‟s hardship looks like a form of slavery. This analysis is related to
Smith‟s article 2000 “Historical Brief-Lives of Women in the early 1800s,” he writes about women„s lives in England.
Daily life for women in the early 1800s in Britain was that of many obligations and few choices. Some even compare the conditions of
women in this time to a form of slavery. Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. First, by their fathers, brothers and
male relatives and finally by their husbands. Their sole purpose in life is to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving
him. If a woman were to decide to remain single, she would be ridiculed and
pitied by
the community
http:staff.washington.educgiacomicoursesenglish200historicalbriefs women.html.
Men and women have to marry for financial support and social status not for love. If an upper class woman wants to live in good fashion and prosperity,
she will have to marry an aristocratic man or a middle class man. It can be seen in Lucy Bushman
‟s article 2008 “Family Life in the 18th Century”, she stated that women and men of the middle classes did not marry for love. Instead, they
married strictly for financial and social reasons. Women who wished to continue living within a wealthy household simply did not marry a man of the middle or
lower class http:EzineArticles.com?expert=Lucy_Bushman. Women have few choices and completely controlled by the men in their
lives. As a wife, they are treated like slavery by men. Florence Fenwick Miller
1854-1935, a midwife turned journalist, described womans position as following quotation.
Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to
be held...under the arbitrary domination of anothers will, and dependent for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual
master. From a speech to the National Liberal Club
. Women turn their beauty or talent to advantage because of economic
hardships. In Women and Prostitution : A Social History book, Vern and Bonnie Bullough stated that women were probably came to the profession as a mistress or
whore for reasons of economic hardship, they were able to turn beauty or talent to advantage 1987: 38. Roxana decides to be a mistress because of economic
hardship. In Victorian era, being a mistress is a common thing. Mistress comes from middle class women, so that mistress is more admitted than a prostitute.
Roxana experiences hardship when her husband‟s company is bankrupt because her
husband has no knowledge to manage his father business. Therefore, Roxana and her five children were abandoned by her husband and did not have financial support. It can be seen
from the following quotation. Misfortunes seldom come alone. This was the forerunner of my husband‟s
flight and as my expectation were cut off on that side, my husband gone, and my family of children on my hands and nothing to subsist them, my
condition was the most deplorable that words can express.Defoe, 2000: 5
Roxana experiences hardships because of family survival and patriarchy system. This analysis is related to
Donna J. Guy‟s article. She writes about the history of prostitution worldwide in her article Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful
Daughters. Guy states that prostitution is linked to religious beliefs, family survival, and patriarchy authority. However, women choose prostitution to find
independence, provide an income or control their own sexuality 1998: 181. It also happens to Roxana who is left by her husband. To support the family
economically, Roxana as an upper class woman chooses to be a mistress. She has to face and solve the hard life. She chooses to be a mistress because to fulfil her
five children needs. Besides that, she has a certain reason that is to find independent. Being a mistress, she can provide money and control her own
sexuality. A wife or a married woman is essentially subsumed into man. If Roxana is still as a wife, she will experience hardship as seen to the following
quotation. I had no inclination to be a wife again, I has had such bad luck with may
first husband, I hated the thoughts of it; I found that a wife is treated with indifference, a mistress with strong passion; a wife is look‟d upon, as but
an upper servant, a mistress is sovereign; a wife must give up all she has; have every reverse makes be thought hard of it; and be upbraided with her
very pin-money; whereas a mistress makes the saying true, that what the man has, is hers, and what she has is her own; the wife bears a thousand
insults, and is forced to sit still and bear it, or part and be undone; a mistress insulted, helps herself immediately, and takes another Defoe,
2000: 64.
A wife or a married woman has no control of their earnings, inheritance, and property. Specifically, Roxana virtually loses her right to own and control
property. Her husband, therefore, was responsible for her well-being. Mistress is better off because she has control over their property and receive up to one-third
of her husband‟s property. It is the reason that Roxana chooses to remain single. It
can be seen from the following quotation.
