On The Construction Of Thoughtful Desire In Eliza Haywood’s The History Of Miss Betsy Thoughtless

As one of the most famous English prolific writers in early eighteenth century, ElizaHaywood’s works can be divided into two periods. In her early amorous novels, she createssome rebellious women characters while in later works of domestic life, she explores therestraining moral conventions for women. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, which isher masterpiece in the later period, is one of the most popular novels with didacticism.Polly Young-Eisendrath holds that maintaining a rigid gender identity projected by thepatriarchy, women will lose themselves，which can only be regained by realizing “somethingis missing” and “recognizing our most cherished beliefs and desires”. This thesis aims atanalyzing Betsy’s transformation from the object of desire to the subject of desire from theperspective of Eisendrath’s Gender Theory to explore Haywood’s stress on the importance ofthoughtful desire for women to build a happy marriage life. Betsy’s independence andcourage to pursue happiness inspires the temporal women readers that women should try totranscend the myth of patriarchy and be the subject of their own desire.Firstly, this thesis describes Betsy’s thoughtless behavior because of her lack ofthoughtful desire. In order to be recognized by others in the patriarchal society, women haveto act with strict accordance to social conventions. To get positive impression, Betsy behavesaccordingly. She accepts blindly others’ desire projected onto herself. Considering herself asthe object of others’ desire，Betsy coquets with male pursuers imprudently which nearly leadsher to seduction. For this, she suffers ill reputation and has to step into forced marriage byconvention. Secondly, this thesis analyzes Betsy’s awakening of thoughtful desire. When themoral conventions in marriage can’t solve the problems she has in reality, Betsy examines herown life and is no longer obsessed in being the desire of others and decides to become thesubject of her own desire by recognizing the necessity of love and her inner desire. Finally,this thesis describes Betsy’s manifestation of thoughtful desire. The adulterous affair ofBetsy’s husband makes her decide to cast off the chains of marriage thoroughly and pursueher love. However, she doesn’t behave recklessly as before through her reflection on the pasterrors. Though aware of her real desire of love, she still does not see passion as all her life buttries to do her duty as a wife. She pursues truly worthy love without violating the moral conventions.Betsy’s transformation from the object of desire to being the subject of desire proves thatit is possible for women to become the subject of their own desire. Eliza Haywood’s endeavorto meet the double requirements of love and morality suggests that the balance between senseand sensibility is the best way for women to live a happy life.