CHALLENGING PATRIARCHY:APHRA BEHN’S THE FORCED MARRIAGE

Abstract

Aphra Behn’s The Forced Marriage (1670) challenges patriarchal norms in Restoration England by centering women’s perspectives within a tragicomic framework. Written when women first appeared on stage as performers and playwrights, the play critiques arranged marriages and highlights the silencing of female voices in matters of love. Through Erminia and Galatea, Behn depicts women’s resistance to paternal authority and their determination to choose freely, contrasting male characters driven by jealousy and impulsive emotion. Drawing on familiar Shakespearean motifs, Behn reshapes conventional tragicomedy to empower her heroines with rationality and agency. While often criticized for themes tolerated in male dramatists, Behn redefines the stage as a space where women can challenge social constraints. The Forced Marriage thus emerges as a pioneering work that subverts gender hierarchies and anticipates feminist arguments about women’s autonomy.