Fanny Hill

This section shows Fanny changing from having an internal conflict between her modesty and sexuality to embracing her sexual charms for her own purposes. In the first section, Fanny experiences arousal and sexuality as something new and foreign, though natural and pleasurable. With the advent of her relationship with Charles, Fanny begins to see sex as a fun and exciting experience to share with someone she loves, altering her relationship to The Tension Between Desire and Morality. The importance of the emotional dimensions of sex is apparent when Fanny attributes her love for Charles to his “complete triumph over a maidenhead,” during which Fanny “drown’d all sense of pain in the pleasure of seeing him, of thinking that I belong’d to him” (29). As they explore their pleasure in each other’s bodies and company, Fanny’s relationship evolves into something resembling a mutual romantic relationship. Their emotional attachment temporarily eases the dissonance Fanny feels between desire and morality, as the power of their connection lends their sexual desire a kind of moral license.

At the same time, Fanny and Charles’s relationship points to The Critique of Societal Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality. Charles and Fanny maintain a normative domestic relationship for 11 months in Mrs. Jones’s apartment that mirrors the way socially acceptable marriages of the time usually functioned. The only reason their relationship falls short of the societal standard is because they are not officially married, and they cannot be officially married because of Fanny’s history of living in a brothel. Furthermore, keeping a mistress or being kept as a mistress is shown to be a common practice, as Charles’s father “kept a mistress” and Mrs. Jones “had been kept by a gentleman” in her youth (33, 35). The fact that Fanny is a kept woman makes her ineligible to be either Charles’s wife or a member of mainstream society, but keeping Fanny as a mistress does not carry the same stigma for Charles. When Charles’s family intervenes, all of the economic and social consequences of the failure of the relationship fall on Fanny, even though she and Charles were equal, consenting partners. The social mores around sex and sex work, the novel shows, place disproportionate blame on women and inflict disproportionate punishment.

Furthering the theme of Women’s Economic Dependency on Men, Fanny is often at the mercy of men as her life progresses. Her experiences reveal this to be a societal trend that transcends sex work. When Charles’s father sends Charles abroad, Mrs. Jones tells Fanny that she needs to pay the exorbitant rent and fees associated with the apartment, which she cannot do without an income. Even if Charles and Fanny were married, if Charles were to die or flee the marriage, Fanny would still be in this dangerous position of lacking the necessary funds to continue her lifestyle. Mrs. Jones introducing Fanny to Mr. H highlights the transactional nature of the transition from one man to another in a way that shows how thin the distinction between morality and immorality can be. If she were a widow, Fanny would still have needed to find another man to marry to sustain herself, meaning she would be jumping from one sexual relationship to another for financial support. Since she was a mistress rather than a wife, that transition simply takes the form of finding a new keeper rather than a new husband. Fanny refers to Mr. H as “my new master,” affirming this shift in ownership from Charles to Mr. H. When Mr. H breaks off his involvement with Fanny, she takes the only recourse available to her by moving into a new brothel. These shifts in Fanny’s life reveal the two paths available to women in her circumstances: They can be a wife or engage in sex work. Either way, they remain economically dependent on men and must use their sexual potential to secure protection from them, whether that protection is legal or extra-legal.

The Critique of Societal Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality and The Tension Between Desire and Morality converge in Fanny’s relationship with Mr. H, illustrating the ways social class influences what is considered moral or immoral. When Fanny sees Mr. H assaulting their maid, Fanny notes that, if she were in love with Mr. H, she “should have broke in and play’d the jealous princess” (46). Playing the jealous “princess” rather than “mistress” or “wife” shows the way power, hierarchy, and emotional attachment intersect in assessing the morality of behavior in a sexual relationship. Because Fanny has neither social power nor emotional investment in this relationship, she does not have the leverage to control Mr. H by expressing her disapproval. Instead, Fanny exacts revenge by engaging in her own sexual affair with a person of lower rank than her in the household. When Mr. H discovers Fanny’s affair with Will, Fanny uses his infidelity to justify her actions. Mr. H admits that Fanny “fairly turn’d the tables upon me,” but he also emphasizes that Fanny is not his equal, and therefore he does not feel morally beholden to her: “It is not with one of your cast of breeding and sentiments that I should enter into a discussion of the very great difference of the provocations” (58). His statement highlights the difference between their social placement and, therefore, the difference between their levels of morality in his eyes. Because he is in a more advantageous position socially as a wealthy man, Fanny does not have any social claim over Mr. H’s sexuality or loyalty. Critically, following Fanny’s expulsion from Mr. H’s apartment, she must go to a brothel, whereas Mr. H quickly “married a lady of birth and fortune,” and Will marries “an innkeeper’s buxom young widow” four months later (58). For women, sexuality can degrade their social position, preventing reputable marriage and ascendance. Men like Mr. H and Will can simply return to their social stratum and operate as normal.