After her initial curiosity, Fantomina discovers that she enjoys the sexual act and the power she feels in her seduction of Beauplaisir, which gives her the boldness to continue in her ruse: “Her Design was once more to engage him, to hear him sigh, to see him languish, to feel the strenuous Pressures of his eager Arms, to be compelled, to be sweetly forc’d to what she wished with equal Ardour, was what she wanted, and what she had form’d a Stratagem to obtain, in which she promis’d herself Success” (Haywood 719). Like the rakes presented in literature who seduce women to gratify their own lustful desires, Fantomina began to take on this ideology. Beauplaisir’s constant unfaithfulness causes Fantomina to lose any loving feelings she would have had for him, but her own passions have been stirred so she manipulates their relationship to gratify her own desires: “…and while the Knowledge of his Inconstancy and Levity of Nature kept her from having that real Tenderness for him she would else have had, she found the Means of gratifying the Inclination she had for his agreeable Person, in as full a Manner as she could wish” (Haywood 723). Like her rake counterparts, Fantomina can be seen as playing on her lover’s weaknesses.
The pleasure Fantomina derives from her sexual encounters while in disguise, presents a role reversal where “the male lover is the one who is deceived and reduced to slavery before his love , while the woman gratifies her own needs…” (Ballaster “Preparations to Love” 60). Fantomina smartly chooses disguises that will sexually entice Beauplaisir: Fantomina is a prostitute, Celia is a chambermaid for his room, Widow Bloomer is in need of comforting, and The Fair Incognita represents a new mysterious conquest. Fantomina goes through great lenghths just to satisfy her own sexual desires.
By bestowing masculine characteristics to Fantomina, Haywood is able to empower her female character. In a time when women are treated like infidels, Fantomina recognizes she has outsmarted Beauplaisir and congratulates herself on her victory over him: “But I have outwitted even the most Subtle of the deceiving Kind, and while he thinks to fool me, is himself the only beguiled Person” (Haywood 723).
