“She could not
conceal the sudden Rack which all at once invaded her; or had her Tongue been
mute, her wildly rolling Eyes, the Distortion of her Features, and Convulsions
which shook her whole Frame, in spite of her, would have reveal’d she labour’d
under some terrible Shock of Nature.” – p.288 Fantomina (Haywood)
“In the early
modern period, when curiosity rose to a peak of frenzied attention, it took on
distinct historical shapes. From 1660 to 1820, [curious people] asked questions
that challenged the status quo. They inquired into forbidden topics […] In
reaction, conservative literary culture represented these queries as social or
intellectual transgressions that were parallel to the physical transgression of
oddly formed people. Curious people thus appeared as monsters, “queers,” and
curiosities.” – p.2 Curiosity
(Benedict)
The protagonist of Fantomina, a victim of her own sexual
curiosity for the man she loves, uses that same curiosity, naturally inherent
within all people, to seduce Beauplaisir over
and over again. The flawless execution of her “method” (p. 283 – it is worth
mentioning that her use of this word implies, in a way, that her multiple
disguises, and efforts, repeated are empirical/scientific trials) allowed her
to satisfy her itching interest in what exactly it is that keeps a man’s sexual
attention – as sublime beauty, which she possesses, only can attain it. She
revives the intrigue in their romantic relationship using her many disguises,
raising the anti every time, until it got the point where her lover could no
longer take not knowing her true identity, consequently ending the
relationship.
These affairs proved detrimental to
the protagonist as her persistent pursuit of her curiosities, in the hopes of
trying to win her lover over, leads to her pregnancy. The quote above is
describing the transformations her body undertakes both physically and
physiologically: her excess curiosity has literally transformed her appearance
into something far from the norm of how a beautiful innocent girl should look.
The second quote is telling of the
mind-state of those living in the mentioned timeframe in terms of what they
thought about curiosity, especially curious people. The constant prying and
obsession into “forbidden topics” constituted heresy, especially if practiced
in excess: that the act of infringing upon societal norms is much like a
deformity when compared to an average human body. This association allowed for early-modern
writers to personify someone’s inherent curiosity as being able to transform
into a sort of deformity.
One of my favorite examples can be
found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
– published 1818. Ever since a young man, Victor Frankenstein’s curiosity of
the natural wonders of the world leads him to a life-long obsession of the
natural sciences. This lead’s Victor to create his “Creature,” which he claims was
to help the future of mankind, even though Shelley’s writing suggests that it
was more so due to his arrogance. Consequently, this leads to the creation of an
abomination of nature, deformed physically head-to-toe, whose life ends up
being nothing but a walking curiosity: endlessly wondering and studying human
nature.
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