Fantomina: Why agree on a second date when she knows what she’s getting into?

“As for her Proceedings with [Beauplaisir], or how a second Time to escape him, without discovering who she was, she cou’d neither assure herself, not wither or not in the last Extremity she wou’d do so. – Bent, however, on meeting him, whatever the Consequences,” – Fantomina (p.261)

“A Woman of Wit when thus ensnar’d, is infinitely more unhappy than one of a less distinguishing Capacity, because she sees and knows the Dangers into which she is about to plunge herself, yet withal finds them unavoidable, with open Eyes she gazes on the vast Abyss where her dear Peace of Mind is already lost, and which also threatens the Destruction of her Fame, her Honour, and all that is valuable, yet is still blind to every Path that might guide her from the impending Mischiefs.” – Reflections on the various Effects of Love (p.121)

“the desirability of a mood is also related to the level of arousal the mood denotes.” – Answers from Cognitive Psychology; Feldman Barrett (p.23)

            In the selected passage, Fantomina (that’s what I’m calling her) is not able to think straight, her “Peace of mind is already lost.” She’s already given herself to Beauplaisir and she doesn’t even realize it. The protagonist contemplates upon how she’s going to meet with her love without giving in to his desires. She figures that the “Strength of her Virtue” will save her (p.260). I argue that she knows what she’s getting into form the beginning – ever since she first devises a plan to flirt with Beauplaisir.

            Haywood describes falling in love with the state of being ensnar’d – to be captivated or caught in a trap. Fantomina is in love with Beauplaisir, and now she cannot stay away from him. Whether or not she ends up sleeping with him or not, she never from the beginning contemplates the option of standing him up – which would have been the easiest way for her to save her virtue. She is “blind” as Haywood puts it in the passage above.

            Fantomina is clearly sexually attracted to this man, to the point to where she stalks him in various disguises just to be able to have sex with him. Of course she’s going to have to sleep with Beauplaisir if she goes on that second date; either a smart woman like her couldn’t put two and two together, or she literally had to lie to herself to be able to get one step closer to what she really wanted. The intense physiological response triggered in Fantomina by Beauplaisir is conjugated from within herself in the form of Love – an emotional response. Reddy explains that the “desire” mentioned by Barrettt is a “goal-relevant type emotional valence” (p.23), and for Fantomina it means achieving her goal would result in a positive emotional valence. A positive emotional valence would produce a state of arousal (physiologically) in Fantomina. Reddy explains arousal as being either “aversive” or “appetitive”(p.22)  – in this case it’s the latter: a natural desire to satisfy bodily needs (Oxford American Dictionary).

So, the reason Fantomina went on that second date: to quench her natural bodily desires.