Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress

“If there are any Parts in her Story, which being oblig’d to relate a wicked Action, seem to describe it too plainly, the Writer says, all imaginable Care has been taken to keep clear of Indecencies, and immodest Expressions; and ’tis hop’d you will find nothing to prompt a vicious Mind, but every-where much to discourage and expose it.”

The Writer both warns and titillates the reader with the promise that the text will contain bawdy descriptions of sexual transgression. He then goes on to feign prudishness, as he reinforces that his intention is to inhibit rather than encourage immoral action. Depending on their moral attitude, the reader may decide whether the Writer’s stance is serious or ironic.

“Being to give my own Character, I must be excus’d to give it as impartially as possible, and as if I was speaking of another-body; and the Sequel will lead you to judge whether I flatter myself or no.”

Roxana, who by now has taken control of the narrative from the Writer, claims that she will speak of her character as though in the third person and thereby aim for objectivity. Though the reader will have nothing but her testimony to go by, she leaves it to them to judge whether she is giving an honest enough evaluation of herself.  

“Here I must take the Liberty […] to turn to my Fellow-Creatures, the Young Ladies of this Country, and speak to them, by way of Precaution […] Never, Ladies, marry a Fool; any Husband rather than a Fool; with some other Husbands you may be unhappy, but with a Fool you will be miserable.”

As part of her cautionary tale, Roxana advises any young ladies reading her testament to avoid the certain mistake of marrying a man with low intelligence. Though her tone is light and mocking, she is serious when she states that a man who is not in control of his own affairs will make an incompetent companion and provider. Her ensuing narrative will go on to prove this is the case. 

“I must remember it here, to the Praise of this poor Girl, my Maid, that tho’ I was not able to give her any Wages […] she would not leave me […] for which tho’ I acknowledg’d her Kindness and Fidelity, yet it was but a bad Coin that she was paid in at last, as will appear in its Place.”

In this passage, Roxana relates her equivocatory attitude to Amy, who was once so loyal that she agreed to work without wages. However, she forewarns the reader to not look on Amy’s benevolent actions too kindly, because she turned out to be Roxana’s accomplice in crime and increasingly self-interested. Roxana thus aims to gain control over the narrative and the reader’s sympathies. 

“‘He knows too that you are young and handsome, and he has the surest Bait in the World to take you with.’”

Amy recognizes that the Landlord’s “‘bait’” of riches will no doubt be tempting to a woman who has fallen on hard times. She implies that the exchange of Roxana’s youthful, attractive body for financial security is inevitable. In putting the suggestion of the scandalous exchange into Amy’s mouth, Roxana partially absolves herself of the responsibility for it. 

“Hitherto I had not only preserv’d the Virtue itself, but the virtuous Inclination and Resolution; and had I kept myself there, I had been happy, tho’ I perish’d of meer Hunger; for without question, a Woman ought to die, than to prostitute her Virtue and Honour, let the Temptation be what it will.”

Roxana describes how she previously held virtue to be definitive of her character, to the extent that she would rather die of hunger than transgress. Her increasing departure from this pronouncement is important to the fashioning of her character as a self-interested woman who seeks advantage regardless of the cost to herself and others. 

“I sinn’d with open Eyes, and thereby had a double Guilt upon me.”

Roxana makes no qualms about being conscious of sinning when she agrees to become the landlord’s mistress. The metaphor of “open Eyes” suggests that she knew what she was doing. 

“As I thought myself a Whore, I cannot say but that it was something design’d in my Thoughts, that my Maid should be a Whore too, and should not reproach me with it.”

Aware that she has transgressed from conventional notions of morality, Roxana does not want to be in a position where her still virtuous maid can judge her. She therefore decides that Amy too should compromise her virtue. The women’s common whoredom bonds them and makes them a unit of transgressors in a world that would judge and ostracize them. 

“I thought his Face look’d like a Death’s-Head; and then, immediately, I thought I perceiv’d his Head all Bloody; and then his Cloaths look’d Bloody too.”

This passage illustrates Roxana’s premonition that the Landlord will be attacked to death on his journey from Paris. It is one of several flights into the supernatural in Roxana’s imagination and describes how she has some instinctive sense that there is a shadow side to a life of wealth and pleasure. 

“I was no become the vainest Creature upon Earth, and particularly, of my Beauty; which, as other People admir’d, so I became every Day more foolishly in Love with myself, than before.”

Roxana’s narcissism stems from her sense of her personal beauty and how valuable a commodity it is in a world of lustful men. In love with herself, she is loyal to her own interests above anyone else’s. 

“Here my Lord bought me a little Female Turkish Slave […] and of her I learnt the Turkish Language; their Way of Dressing, and Dancing, and some Turkish, or rather Moorish Songs, of which I made Use, to my Advantage, on an extraordinary Occasion, some Years after, as you shall hear in its Place.”

Here, Roxana makes reference to the Turkish habit that she acquires on her journey with the Prince. While the costume and dances are natural to Roxana’s Turkish slave, to her Northern European male audiences, they are exotic and titillating. Roxana’ ability to inhabit the exotic makes her seem less an upright British woman than an ambiguous Other. 

“I look’d back on the Life I had led, with utmost Contempt and Abhorrence; I blush’d, and wonder’d at myself, how I cou’d act thus; how I cou’d divest myself of Modesty and Honour, and prostitute myself for Gain; and I thought, if ever it shou’d please God to spare me this one time from Death, it wou’d not be possible that I should be the same Creature again.”

Following her near-death experience on a ship from France to Holland, Roxana exhibits a sense of regret and alludes that she will now follow a path of virtue. However, the narrative goes on to show that she will take up her old ways and continue to live a life of self-interest rather than one directed by Christian principles. 

“I had no Inclination to be a Wife again […] I found that a Wife is treated with Indifference, a Mistress with a strong Passion; a Wife is look’d upon as but an Upper-Servant, a Mistress is a Sovereign.”

Roxana stipulates that there are no worldly benefits, besides honor, to being a wife; whereas the role of mistress is advantageous, because it invites both desire, respect and control of one’s own and one’s lover’s purse strings. 

“I […] went into my Chamber, but did not shut the Door; and as he cou’d easily see that I was undressing myself, he steps to his own Room, which was but on the same Floor.”

In this passage the tease of Roxana’s seduction is evident. She refuses the Dutchman’s request to bed her, but she does not close the door to her Chamber and undresses so that he can see her. Her conscious juxtaposition of coyness and exhibitionism suggests that she is a master in the art of seduction. 

“Very often when the Trouble was taken off of their Hands, so was their Money too; and […] I thought it was far safer for the Sex not to be afraid of the Trouble, but to be really afraid of their Money; that […] the Staff in their own Hands, was the best Security in the World.”

Roxana makes the feminist claim that the financial security of being a wife is paid for in the loss of a woman’s own money. She claims that women are more affluent in following her own example and taking charge of their own finances rather than trusting them to a man. 

“One of the Gentlemen cry’d out, Roxana! Roxana! […] upon which foolish Accident I had the Name of Roxana presently fix’d on me all over the CourtEnd of Town, as effectually as if I had been Christen’d Roxana.”

In this passage, Roxana acquires her infamous name when she is behaving most like an exotic courtesan in her London abode. Given that the memoir’s title is Roxana, this suggests that her given name and the character she has fashioned supplants the virtuous Christian she was at birth. 

“By this Key he cou’d come in at what time of Night or Day he pleas’d […] so if it was twelve, one, or two a-Clock at Night, he cou’d come directly into my Bed-Chamber. N.B. I was not afraid I shou’d be found a-Bed with any-body else, for, in a word, I convers’d with no-body at-all.”

This passage illustrates that with the English Lord, Roxana has lost some of the autonomy of being a mistress and has become a whore who needs to be available at whichever unsociable hour her benefactor should choose to make use of her. His possessiveness over her is shown with the figure of the lock and key and his expectation that she should not bed anyone else. 

“‘What will my Children say to themselves, and to one another, when they find their Mother, however rich she may be, is at best but a Whore, a common Whore?’”

Roxana begins to show some trace of embarrassment for her actions when she considers having to explain to her children that her wealth has derived from whoring. She suddenly begins to realize that riches are not enough to make her happy, especially when they leave her socially ostracized. 

“Amy, an ambitious Jade, who knew my weakest Part, namely, that I lov’d great things, and that I lov’d to be flatter’d and courted; said abundance of kind things upon this Occasion, which she knew were suitable to me, and wou’d prompt my Vanity.”

This citation shows Roxana’s retrospective realization that Amy is beginning to manipulate her. In a reverse of fortunes, the maid targets her mistress’ weaknesses for flattery and luxury and so gains mastery over her. This circumstance also shows Roxana’s liability to become ruled not only by Amy, but by her weaknesses themselves, which get in the way of clear thinking. 

“Let no Reader wonder at my extraordinary Concern for this poor Woman; or at my giving my Bounty to her […] Was it possible I cou’d think of a poor desolate Woman with four Children, and her Husband gone from her, and perhaps good for little if he had stay’d.”

Roxana shows both her empathy for the Quaker woman who has been abandoned by her husband and also her disdain for the state of matrimony. She takes it as a given that there is a high possibility that husbands are useless; a statement that falls somewhere between social commentary and provocation in Defoe’s patriarchal society. 

“I was bound to come so near my Girl, as to kiss her, which I wou’d not have done, had it been possible to have avoided it; but there was no room to escape.”

This extract in the ship’s cabin illustrates how Roxana feels that she is being cornered, not only by her daughter, but by her destiny. There is the sense that she will not be able to escape facing her responsibility.

“My Husband told me what the Captain had said; but very happily took it, that the Captain had brought a Tale by-halves, and having heard it one way, had told it another; and that neither cou’d he understand the Captain, neither did the Captain understand himself.”

This passage shows how Roxana’s husband, the Dutchman, is in denial as to what he has heard from the Captain. He chooses to misunderstand the Captain’s tale, and lets the evidence of Roxana’s disrepute, in addition to his own experience of her lack of virtue, elude him. His wish to believe what is convenient to him, enables Roxana to get away with her crimes.

“‘O! says she, She is my Mother; she is my Mother; and she does not own me.’”

This exclamation conveys the daughter’s pain when Roxana does not own up to recognizing her. This legitimate daughter from Roxana’s first marriage protests that her mother is making her illegitimate. The apostrophe, followed by an exclamation, also conveys the daughter’s shock that Roxana’s selfish desire to save her reputation takes precedence over her maternal instinct.