Misogyny
Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope both targeted author Haywood as the object of their misogynistic ire. A double-edged sword, it turns out. While surely no author wants to be sliced to pieces by the possessors of such elevated wit, to be so targeted means you got under their skin. Haywood’s primary criminal offense for these and other men of the time was not bad writing, but rather proving that one need not have been with external genitals in order to be a writer—and a ridiculously successful one, at that. Sexism is the name of the game and misogyny makes for many terrific metaphors throughout the book:
“Mischief is the darling Favorite of Woman! Blood is the satisfaction”
Personification of Emotion
The prime directive of the use of figurative metaphor in the novel is personification of emotion and the actions which derive from the depth of those feelings. Love in excess is often passion and passion controlled is paradoxically passion released:
“Desire, with watchful Diligence repell’d, returns with greater Violence in unguarded sleep, and overthrows the vain Efforts of Day.”
Female Sexuality
One of the themes the story examines is the realty of female sexuality being as intensely felt as that of the male. The difference lies not in the sexual desire nor the gender, but the repression. Women learn intuitively to suppress outward exhibitions of sexual desire but there is also the unlearned repression of the desire itself which must be battled:
“…have I not a heart?—A most susceptible and tender heart?—Yes, you may feel it throb, it beats against my breast, like an imprisoned bird, fain would burst its cage! To fly to you, the aim of all its wishes.”
Scorn Not Necessary
Throughout the novel, emotions are manifested as actions and actions initiate metaphor. In the blink of an eye a character can transform swooning to drowning in despair and go from meekness to hellish deviltry:
“How did this Sight inflame me? Mild as I am, by Nature, I that Moment was all Fury!”
Overkill
Perhaps, of course, it was not merely of misogynistic principle that stimulated Swift and Pope to sling arrows at Haywood. One must consider the points directed toward her actual writing talents which can be, after all, a little over the top when it comes to institutionalization of metaphorical imagery rather than just coming out saying the thing:
“The Tempest of Rage and Grief being hush’d to a little more Tranquillity, Count D’elmont, to remove all Scruples which might be yet remaining in the Breast of Monsieur Frankville, entertain’d him with the hole History of his Adventures.”
