50 pages • 1 hour read
John ClelandFanny Hill
John ClelandFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1748A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Critique of Societal Hypocrisy Regarding Sexuality
Fanny Hill depicts the hypocrisy of 18th-century society regarding sexuality. Part of what Cleland criticizes in the novel is the success of traditional conduct novels, like Pamela by Samuel Richardson, which are focused on erotic themes and scenes, but which mask themselves as moral lessons against vice. Fanny Hill is deliberately pornographic, and its success, selling widely in multiple editions and as a pirated work, shows society’s fascination with and enjoyment of sexuality in art. Furthermore, the novel repeatedly depicts men exploring sexuality with sex workers and then returning to their social positions without stigma, while women in sex work are forced to remain out of the public eye. Overall, the novel shows how society’s outward push for modesty and repression of sexuality is hypocritical, concealing the continuing interest in and desire for exploration of sex and lust. Those who fulfill men’s sexual interests—particularly vulnerable people and sex workers—absorb the shame and stigma that the disavowal of sexuality creates.
A key example of the hypocrisy within the novel is Mr. H, who is wealthy and socially successful despite keeping Fanny as his mistress for an extended period. Like Charles before him, Mr. H experiences no adverse social consequences for being known to engage in extramarital sex or engage with sex workers. Exploring their sexuality is a matter of course for men, a normal and sometimes even encouraged stage in their maturation. The same is not true for the women they have sex with for whom the relationship can be socially devastating, as the stories of Harriet, Emily, and Louisa demonstrate. When Mr. H ends his relationship with Fanny, both Mr. H and the reader know that Fanny has no choice but to find a brothel in which she can continue her sex work, since she is considered “damaged” or “dirty” by society. Regarding Mr. H, however, Fanny notes: “Soon after he married a lady of birth and fortune, to whom, I have heard, he prov’d an irreproachable husband” (58), indicating how men can both explore their sexuality and remain pristine in the eyes of the public. The inclusion of the comment that Mr. H was an “irreproachable husband” hints at the likelihood that Mr. H continued to engage with sex workers and commit adultery, but, as with his affair with Fanny, such instances were kept secret, only disadvantaging the women with whom Mr. H engaged.
It is important to include Charles’s reaction to Fanny’s story of their years apart, in which Fanny notes “he was the less shocked at; as, on reflecting how he had left me circumstanc’d, he could not be entirely unprepar’d for it” (122). Charles’s reaction indicates that he understands the options available to an unmarried, sexually experienced woman in the 18th century. Even Fanny cannot fathom that he might want to marry her at first because her sexuality has placed her in a lower social caste from which society says she cannot escape. Her marriage to Charles is framed as an almost charitable act on Charles’s part, reflecting the attitude that unchaste women are inherently undesirable. However, if this were truly the case, then novels like Fanny Hill, in which a woman is “ruined,” would not be popular at all, since such a novel should, in theory, offend the sensibilities of the times. The multiple attempts at banning the novel do indicate a sustained effort toward such a moral code, but the lasting popularity of Fanny Hill and works like it shows a more true and legitimate human interest in free sexuality.
Women’s Economic Dependence on Men
The portrayal of the ways in which women economically depend on men is a complex theme in Fanny Hill. The novel regularly subverts the conventional portrayal of women’s dependence on men. In the opening of Fanny’s first letter, she explains how her mother contributed financially to her household, after which she is led by Esther to London, where she enters Mrs. Brown’s home and begins her sexual journey with Phoebe. Each step of this journey is paved by other women, who support and sustain Fanny without the direct contributions of men. As the novel progresses, characters like Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Cole, and Fanny herself all show themselves to be independent women, sustaining themselves through their own efforts. Of course, the money they earn comes from men, but a critical element of the text is showing how sex work, like any other profession, is a legitimate and sustainable method for accumulating wealth.
The most direct portrayal of women’s economic dependence on men in the text comes through the idea of being a “kept” woman, meaning that a woman is materially supported by a man in exchange for regular and exclusive sexual activity. Fanny is kept first by Charles, then by Mr. H, then by one of the four patrons at Mrs. Cole’s home, then by Mr. Norbert, and, finally, by the older man she meets outside London. However, these relationships are complicated by specific details, such as the fact that Charles “was, however, by the means of his grandmother’s lavish fondness, very sufficiently enabled to keep a mistress” (33), meaning that, in reality, a woman was supporting Fanny, not a man. During her time at Mrs. Cole’s, Mrs. Cole is actually the person providing Fanny housing, and Fanny can save her money, leaving Mrs. Cole’s with 800 pounds of her own money. Upon meeting the older man, Fanny is still in a position to live off her savings but chooses to take up the opportunity that the man presents to her to earn more money. After the older man’s death, she can sustain herself on his fortune in comfort.
At the end of the novel, Fanny “begg’d [Charles] his acceptance of it” (122), referring to giving Charles her fortune, noting how he would have “barter’d his honour for infamy and prostitution” in marrying her (122). However, Charles would be, from a social perspective, giving up his honor as a man by either accepting being “kept” by a woman or by marrying a woman who was formerly a sex worker, which exposes the heart of the issue of dependence. Women in the 18th century were forced to be dependent on men, and, even in a position of wealth and power, neither Fanny nor Charles can fathom a scenario in which Charles is truly dependent on Fanny. His decision to marry Fanny confers respectability and social status on her, but it also gives him legal ownership of her property. The portrayal of dependence in Fanny Hill, then, intentionally subverts social expectations by including multiple women who assert their independence and ability to earn and amass fortunes for themselves, but it ends with the protagonist being folded back into the patriarchal legal and financial structures of her society.
The Tension Between Desire and Morality
The tension in the novel between desire and morality can best be framed as a tension between two forms of morality: a morality governed by desire and a morality governed by dominant social norms. In the former layer of morality, pleasure is the predominant concern, while in the latter morality is determined by strict social gender roles and conventions of behavior. When Fanny notes in the opening of the novel that she “exerted more observation on the characters and manners of the world than what is common to those of my unhappy profession” (3), she is highlighting how her role in sex work exposed her to these differing layers of moral behavior. The reason why others in her “unhappy profession” would keep reflection “at as great a distance as they can, or destroy it without mercy” is that the broader social layer of morality condemns and ridicules those who primarily operate on the sexual layer (3).
Early instances of sexuality in the novel justify the sexual layer of morality through Fanny’s experience with Phoebe, their view of their housemate’s sex acts, and Fanny’s rejection of Mr. Crofts, who is not desirable. In this layer of morality, the primary moral question in any sexual encounter is the mutual satisfaction of all parties involved. Fanny’s relationship with Charles is a positive one for her because of her sincere sexual attraction and romantic attachment to him. Mr. Crofts, however, breaks with these sexual morals by trying to obtain sexual satisfaction without creating desire in Fanny. Mr. Norbert, who is equally offensive to Fanny, makes up for his failings with gifts and wooing. All of these instances contradict 18th-century society’s mainstream morality, which labels any extramarital activity—particularly by women—as taboo. Under this form of morality, desire itself impedes morality, since it can lead to illicit sex.
Most of the time, these two types of morality are at odds with each other, but the two layers of morality intersect occasionally in the novel, revealing the complex ways members of Fanny’s society navigate the contradictions between the demands of morality and those of desire. During the group scene at Mrs. Cole’s home, in which four men have sex with Fanny, Louisa, Harriet, and Emily, the men both disavow conventional morality and project it onto their relationships with the women. They make an elaborate argument against “modesty” to convince the women to engage in exhibitionist sex acts: “whatever pleasure was lost on the side of sentiment was abundantly made up to the senses in the poignancy of variety, and the charms of ease and luxury” (62), they claim, setting “sentiment” as a descriptor for broader social morals, while “ease and luxury” are the domain of the sexual morals. On the other hand, they also project monogamous mores onto their sexual partners, claiming that “it was an inviolable law for every gallant to keep to his partner, for the night especially” (82). The men’s contradictory and self-serving moral arguments show that even those who suffered the fewest consequences for engaging in illicit sex, upper-class men, must contort their beliefs and behaviors to fulfill their desires.
By the end of the novel, the two layers of morality are resolved in Fanny’s marriage to Charles, in which she achieves both the social morality of marriage as well as the sexual morality of the extreme pleasure she and Charles derive from one another. Fanny comments on how the path of vice is “sometimes strew’d with roses,” while the path of virtue, or marriage, is “strew’d with roses purely, and those eternally unfading ones” (123). This conclusion combines the two layers of morality, asserting that the greatest pleasure and social success can be found in finding a monogamous relationship that mutually satisfies the sexual interests of both parties.
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