Fanny Hill

The novel is divided into two letters from Fanny to a friend of hers. The opening of Letter 1 frames the novel as the “loose part” of her life, “wrote with the same liberty” that she led it (3). In this preface, Fanny references her “unhappy profession,” which is a hint to the reader that Fanny was a sex worker; however, her use of the word “liberty” in describing her life indicates that she was not necessarily “unhappy” with the sexuality of her profession. In the 18th century, the word “liberty” carried both negative connotations of sexual immorality and positive connotations of personal freedom, and Cleland plays on this tension throughout the novel to develop the themes of The Tension Between Desire and Morality and The Critique of the Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality.

The way Fanny’s initiation into sex work unfolds establishes the complicated intersections of morality, sexuality, autonomy, and manipulation that the novel will explore. Mrs. Brown and her house are the site and representative of these complicated intersections. Mrs. Brown takes Fanny in when she is abandoned by her guardian and left without a way to protect or support herself; however, she does so to exploit Fanny sexually for her profit. That exploitation begins by introducing Fanny to sexual desire. The fact that Fanny arrives in London at only 15 years old raises issues of consent and abuse, as a 15-year-old is not old enough to consent to or understand sexuality fully. For the 18th-century reader, however, the idea of a story about a teenage girl moving to London was not unusual; the popular novels Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe and Pamela by Samuel Richardson both depict teenage girls being seduced at that same age, though with different outcomes. Fanny’s experience is further complicated by the fact that she quickly embraces her sexuality—but even in that, she is manipulated by Mrs. Brown and Phoebe, who introduce her to sexual pleasure and desire. The first instance of sexual exploration in the text, Phoebe’s seduction of Fanny on her first night in Mrs. Brown’s house, is relatively benign by 18th-century standards. Sex between women was considered largely unproblematic so long as it was kept quiet because it did not involve a man. Fanny comments that Phoebe was inclined “to make the most of pleasure, wherever she could find it” (10), indicating that Phoebe still fits into the heteronormative expectations of the time despite her attraction to women, illustrating the different categorizations of sexuality of the time. Lesbian sexuality does not occur again in the text, but it is important to note how the women in the novel, not the men, encourage Fanny to explore her sexuality and use that exploration as a form of both homosocial bonding and economic manipulation.

Their manipulation of Fanny’s sexuality introduces the theme of The Tension Between Desire and Morality, in which what is socially acceptable is often in conflict with what is physically or emotionally “natural.” Frequently, when discussing her sexuality, Fanny uses variations on the words “nature” or “natural” to describe arousal and lust, framing the novel as operating on two distinct layers of morality. There is conventional social morality, which condemns sexual activity outside of marriage, referenced when Charles comments to Fanny that he “lik’d me as much as he could think of liking any one in my suppose’d way of life” (25), hinting at the social judgment against sex workers. Yet there is also a more hedonistic morality that frames the achievement of sexual pleasure as moral in its own right. Under that morality, Fanny, by rejecting Mr. Crofts’s advances and fleeing Mrs. Brown’s house before Lord B’s arrival, is acting immorally, despite protecting herself from sexual assault, because she is spoiling another person’s sexual pleasure. In this second layer of morality, desire is correct and natural, even when it runs counter to society and perceptions of justice. The theme of The Critique of Societal Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality emerges from the interplay between these layers and how they intersect. Notable men, like Mr. Crofts and Lord B, procure and keep sex workers while remaining respected figures in broader society, while sex workers are ostracized and maligned.

Fanny’s innocence is emphasized in these opening chapters specifically to provide a sharper prism through which to view these layers of morality. Mrs. Brown’s house is designed, as Fanny comments, “to corrupt my native purity, which had taken no root in education; whilst not the inflammable principal of pleasure, so easily fired at my age, made strange work within me” (17). The “strange work” of arousal pulls Fanny to the more hedonistic and sexual layer of morality, in which pleasure is equated to justice. Still, “all the modesty I was brought up on” ties Fanny to the first layer (17), creating feelings of guilt or shame regarding her arousal. It is only as a side note that Fanny mentions making “a vice of necessity” (17), referring to Mrs. Brown as the only person to offer her any kind of employment in London. Fanny here articulates another Critique of Society Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality, in which the social pressure on her as a woman to protect her “virtue” and “modesty” conflicts with her physical needs and sense of obligation, which bind her first to her parents, then to Mrs. Brown, and, at the end of Part 2, to Charles. Without Mrs. Brown, Fanny would have been destitute.

Fanny’s escape with Charles contributes to the developing theme of Women’s Economic Dependence on Men, though the novel takes a nuanced approach to this theme, depicting how the greater wealth and power enjoyed by men create webs of economic dependency among women. Initially, Fanny depends mostly on women: Her family is supported with contributions from her mother, then Esther Davis accompanies Fanny to London, where Mrs. Brown takes her in and Phoebe “teaches” her. Until Fanny flees with Charles, it seems that she is largely dependent on women, not men, but even these women depend on men for their livelihoods and standing in society. For example, Polly Philips is “kept” by the Italian man, and it is implied that many of the girls in Mrs. Brown’s house live the same way, sustaining themselves on the money men give them for sex.