A quick All's Well

Recently there's been this trend throughout our classes with this idea of the female getting rejected by the male. I like to believe that an 18th century, British short story titled Fantomina was derived from some Shakespearean scripture. Eliza Haywood wrote this story of an unnamed girl who was probably of a higher class, and she becomes infinitely infatuated with Beauplaisir, the original translation meaning something along the lines of "good pleasure." Yada, yada, yada. She gets rejected a number of times, but every time (four times in forty pages) she's rejected she then morphs herself into another seductress. So time goes on and things get out of hand and then...all's well that ends well? I thought Haywood's story was humorous for it's sensual inscriptions (pornographic genre?) though the ending hits on a lower note. Nevertheless it seems that Haywood's female agent-of-a-character could live as anyone and get anything she wanted, emphasizing the inherent stupidity of the male figure (more specifically, the meat-head, male archetype). In respect for the story it's fair lump all men into this general male character, I understand how it goes.

Then I got to thinking, soon after we eventually read All's Well..., that there is something going on here. Fantomina and Helena are like totally the same person, yeah. Totally, though the difference is that Helena is part of an ensemble (compared to the character-study nature of Fantomina), but they still have the similar bag of tricks. The 'bed trick' for example, the usage of light. Both characters understand that guys are stupid. This is how guys think in literary terms (to some extent [work with me here]):

I want to see this chick's face. She's probably smokin'. Wait, she wants lights off? Well okay, as long as I get my end's meat. Was that inappropriate to call a girl a piece of meat? No, as long as I care for her. Come to me, Diana......yada, yada, yada.......Scene.

Then we come to the part where we find out Mr. Beauplaisir, I mean Bertram, has been duped. Bertram's initial enigmatic epistle had become his fate because All's Well That Ends Well. His letter predicted the perfect happy ending, but it's the females which take over in these stories. Mr. Beauplaisir falls for the mask-followed-the-no-lights trick by the last of Fantomina's aliases. It's textbook. But the textbook must derive from something. Haywood's character grabbed a little flavor from All's Well's witty and wild Helena (who swapped spots with Diana).

Really, who isn't Shakespeare? He writes and becomes characters within characters within characters and the latter.