Challenging Gender Hierarchy through Humour in Aphra Behn's The Rover I & II.

Abstract

This paper deals with the way Aphra Behn challenges gender hierarchy through humour in two of her best-known comedies, The Rover I & II. Twentiethcentury criticism has extensively argued that gender is not biological but cultural. Women are not considered inferior beings who must remain subordinated to men, at least, in western culture. However, as early as the seventeenth-century, Behn was challenging gender hierarchy through her comedies and her personal experience. She was a woman who was able to write comedies to be performed and, through these comedies, she dared to expose her ideas publicly, in spite of accusations of prostitution. Moreover, through humour, Behn’s female characters become superior to male ones in laughter-raising situations.