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Spectacular Spectators: Regendering the Male Gaze in Delariviere Manley's Julie Anderson continued . . .
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Delariviere Manley's The Royal Mischief, first produced in 1696 and satirized later that year in the anonymous The Female Wits, is the tragic outcome of the consummation of forbidden love. Although Homais has never met Levan, she has fallen passionately in love with him. Unfortunately, Homais and Levan are married to other characters: Homais is married to the impotent Prince of Libardian and Levan is married to the beautiful Bassima. Early in the play Homais sends her slave to entice Levan to come to her. Levan and Homais finally meet each other, he declares his love for her, and they consummate their passion. Shortly after this, Levan discovers that his wife has fallen in love with another man (coincidentally, an old lover of Homais's). Levan orders him to be shot out of a canon, and Homais secretly poisons Levan's wife. In the play's final scene, Homais dies from an accidental stab wound and Levan falls on his sword. In Act 2, Homais's slave is sent to entice Levan to meet Homais. The intensity of the promised passion Levan can enjoy with Homais is achieved by her slave's ability to objectify Homais as an erotic spectacle. Homais's slave gives Levan a portrait of her to hold in his hands and gaze upon while the slave reiterates Homais's beauty as displayed in the portrait. As an object in Levan's hands, the power of Homais's beauty is overwhelming. Levan replies that the picture of Homais contains such powerful beauty that in order to be released from the magic of the portrait, he must cease gazing: "I'll gaze no more, there's magic / In the circle," he claims (229). Levan's response demonstrates that the object (understood as both the picture and the real woman) has a power, but as long as it is an object, Levan can remove it from his sight and break the power of the object. Homais's slave realizes this possibility, so he objectifies Homais by creating a mental image of her that Levan cannot shut out by closing his eyes. While Levan continues to hold the portrait of Homais, the slave tells him how Homais reacts to a portrait of Levan: How often have I seen this lovely Venus, Naked, extended in the gaudy bed, Her snowy breast all panting with desire, With gazing, melting eyes, survey your form [a portrait of Levan], And wish in vain 't had life to fill her arms. (229) This moment that the slave tells Levan is clearly erotic, and the eroticism arises from a spectator gazing with desire on an object. After the slave's description of Homais as an erotic object, Levan agrees to meet her. The slave utilizes the principles of a desiring male gaze on an erotic female object to secure Levan's agreement to meet Homais. The erotic picture the slave paints to tempt Levan with Homais's beauty manipulates the audience, too. The slave invites Levan and the audience to share together in the pleasurable mental picture of Homais's fantasy in a way that they cannot share the picture of Homais in Levan's hand. The text of the play creates an two images of Homais: the portrait Levan holds in his hands that the audience cannot clearly see and the mental image of the panting Homais that Levan and the audience both see clearly. 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Node | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Works Cited
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