Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress
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| - | :''[[Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress]]'', a book by Daniel Defoe | ||
| - | '''Roxana''' or '''Rukhsana''' ([[Persian language|Persian]]: ''' رخسانه ''') is a female given name. | ||
| - | == History == | + | '''''Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress''''' is a [[1724 in literature|1724]] novel by [[Daniel Defoe]]. Its full title is ''Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress Or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau, Afterwards Called the Countess de Wintselsheim''. The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "[[fallen woman]]", the second time Defoe wrote about this theme after ''[[Moll Flanders]]''. In the book, a woman who takes on various [[pseudonym]]s, including "[[Roxana]]," describes her fall from wealth thanks to [[abandonment]] by a "[[fool]]" of a [[husband]] and movement into [[prostitution]] upon his abandonment. The woman moves up and down through the social spectrum various times, by contracting an [[ersatz]] marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting a prince and being offered marriage by a Dutch merchant, being finally able to afford her own freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. The novel examines the possibility of eighteenth century [[strong woman|women owning their own estate]] despite a [[patriarchal]] society and draws attention to the incompatibility between [[sexual freedom]] and freedom from [[motherhood]] -- the woman becomes pregnant many times due to her sexual exploits and it is one of her children who come back to expose her, years later, by the closing scenes in the novel. |
| - | '''Roxana''' ([[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], [[Persian language|Persian]]: [[Roshanak]]; Bactrian definition literally "luminous beauty" Persian definition "the dawn"), was a [[Bactria]]n noble and a wife of [[Alexander the Great]]. She was born earlier than the year [[341 BC]], though the precise date remains uncertain. She was the daughter of a Bactrian named [[Oxyartes]] of [[Balkh]] in Bactria (then eastern [[Persian Empire|Persia]], now northern [[Afghanistan]]), and married Alexander in [[327 BC]] after he visited the fortress of [[Sogdian Rock]]. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander, and the marriage was an attempt to reconcile the Bactrian [[satrap]]ies to Alexander's rule, although ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for her. Roxana accompanied him on his campaign in [[India]] in [[326 BC]]. She bore him a posthumous son called [[Alexander IV of Macedon|Alexander IV]] Aegus, after Alexander's sudden death at [[Babylon]] in [[323 BC]]. With the king's death, Roxana and her son became victims of the political intrigues of the collapse of the Alexandrian empire. Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, [[Stateira II]], and Stateira's sister [[Drypteis]] (Pl. Alex. 77.4). Roxana and her son were protected by Alexander's mother, [[Olympias]], in [[Macedon]], but her assassination in [[316 BC]] allowed [[Cassander]] to seek kingship. Since Alexander IV Aegus was the legitimate heir to the Alexandrian empire, Cassander ordered him and Roxana assassinated around [[309 BC]]. | + | |
| + | The character of Roxana can be described as a [[proto-feminism|feminist]] because she carries out her actions of prostitution for her own ends of freedom, but before a feminist ideology was fully formed, which would rule out freedom through such a technique. | ||
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Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress is a 1724 novel by Daniel Defoe. Its full title is Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress Or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau, Afterwards Called the Countess de Wintselsheim. The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time Defoe wrote about this theme after Moll Flanders. In the book, a woman who takes on various pseudonyms, including "Roxana," describes her fall from wealth thanks to abandonment by a "fool" of a husband and movement into prostitution upon his abandonment. The woman moves up and down through the social spectrum various times, by contracting an ersatz marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting a prince and being offered marriage by a Dutch merchant, being finally able to afford her own freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. The novel examines the possibility of eighteenth century women owning their own estate despite a patriarchal society and draws attention to the incompatibility between sexual freedom and freedom from motherhood -- the woman becomes pregnant many times due to her sexual exploits and it is one of her children who come back to expose her, years later, by the closing scenes in the novel.
The character of Roxana can be described as a feminist because she carries out her actions of prostitution for her own ends of freedom, but before a feminist ideology was fully formed, which would rule out freedom through such a technique.
