Relationships play a large part in the average modern day person’s everyday life, just as relationships were important in the past. Although types of companionship’s have somewhat changed over time, the presence and importance of them still remains. Viewing, analyzing and comparing other individual’s relationships to our own is something most people do, as a sort of assurance that things are natural. This is why many people are interested in novels about ways that other human beings interact with individuals and groups. Daniel Defoe’s character Roxana has her own way of interacting with and manipulating people. In his novel Roxana, Defoe uses examples of extreme faithfulness from the Amy to demonstrate the intimate relationship present between Roxana and her servant.
Amy’s loyalty to her mistress is evident from the beginning of the novel when we are also told by Roxana herself that Amy is as “faithful to [her], as the Skin on [her] Back” (25).
Amy proves this when she says: “if I will starve for your sake, I will be a Whore, or any thing, for your sake; why I would die for you, if I were put to it” (28).
This is proven true over the course of the novel, but immediately after those words are spoken, our narrator denies that Amy should be a whore for her. Later in the novel, however, Roxana takes Amy up on this offer, and exercises her power as a mistress to abuse Amy’s loyalty by forcing her to sleep with the Landlord. Roxana tells us: Nay, You Whore, says I, you said, if I would put you to-Bed, you won’d with all your Heart: and with that, I sat her down, pull’d off her Stockings and Shoes, and her Cloaths, Piece by Piece, and led her to the Bed to him: [… ] She pull’d back a little[…
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] and then I threw open the Bed, and thrust her in (46).
The reader later learns that Roxana’s reasoning for this is that she wants Amy to be equal to her – that is, equally as horrible. She says to Amy: ” A Whore! [… ] am I not a Whore as well as you?” (47).
These words seem to be testing the relationship between the mistress and servant, be Amy goes on to deny that her mistress is a whore, but the reader feels certain that Roxana only uses Amy to feels better about herself; she does not want to be a Whore alone.
Although Amy is upset about this incident at first, both the mistress and the servant ultimately gloss over the term “whore” and become comfortable with their status, and closer to one another because of their secret. At the start of the novel, Roxana gives Amy the task of abandoning her children. Amy performs this task without asking any questions, as a loyal servant of friend should. The children are only brought back into the novel when Roxana realizes that one of her daughters is living in her home as a cook maid. Amy is again given the task of dealing with her mistress’s children. She dresses up and visits them, giving them money on their mother’s part, while careful not to reveal the secret about Roxana.
When one of the children figures out who her mother is, Amy kills her against Roxana’s wishes. This goes to show how loyal she is: even though she disobeyed her mistress, she treated the incident as if the daughter had wronged her, rather than Roxana. This may just be what the murder is about – Amy has been close to Roxana for so long, sharing the secret identity, that it has almost become her own secret in many ways. Her choice of words – “she ” ll ruin us all” (272) (using “us” instead of “you”) – shows that she feels as much in trouble as her mistress; on the other hand, her loyalty is still evident when she tells Roxana: “I’ll put you out of your Pain, and her too” (273).
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Amy is obviously thinking about preventing her mistress from suffering, more than she is thinking about herself. Amy again takes on the family when she confronts Roxana’s first husband. She finds out all there is to know and reports back to her mistress, as she does in many cases. It seems that Roxana gives Amy all of her “dirty work” to perform, and she does what her mistress asks, whether out of loyalty or friendship. Amy not only knows so much about Roxana, but has also helped to create who she is: her loyalty to protect Roxana is extreme and it shows an intense closeness between the two. As the novel unwinds, Amy remains loyal, and Roxana slowly elevates her maid to the status a gentlewoman.
She still remains a servant, in many ways – she helps Roxana dress, and does what she asks of her – but has a lot more say in what goes on. She is more Roxana’s equal than her servant and the reader is told several times that Amy has quite a sum of money. If seems that she could go off and make a life for herself, but she is determined to stay near and faithful to Roxana. Amy also seems to feel she has to live up to her mistress’s reputation.
When Roxana is having an affair with the Prince, Amy immediately sleeps with his Gentleman, and Roxana puts it simply: “like Mistress, like Maid” (83).
She respects Amy and treats her very much like an equal – she knows that Amy is just like she is. They have become whores together, as Roxana wanted it in the beginning, and for this reason, they are loyal to one another. Because Roxana and Amy stick together through the whole novel, their bond is strong. Roxana’s identity, kept secret by the loyal Amy, is a secret which brought them closer together. Amy’s faithfulness and ability to trick people for her mistress and friend, as well as Roxana’s power and kindness over her maid reflect the intimate relationship that the two share between on another.
The depiction of a realistic relationship between two of the people in Defoe’s Roxana is what makes the novel so interesting. People tend to look upon other’s relationships to feel the importance of their own. Works Cited Defoe, Daniel. Roxana.
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On April 23, 2003, a case of murder on two counts was lodged in Stanislaus County Superior Court of California against Scott Peterson for killing his wife, Laci Denise Peterson a 27-year-old wife who was eight months pregnant Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve, prompting a nationwide search. The bodies of the Modesto, California woman and her unborn child were found four months later, ...
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
