Aphra Behn, the first woman to achieve professional playwright status, attempted to alter and influence the literary canon through her writing, which was a precarious occupation but made it possible for literature to evolve in a broader field. . Behn was also one of the most witty and entertaining, as evidenced by her most famous play, The Rover, which is a Restoration but dark comedy set in 17th-century Italy under the colonial rule of Spain. The large number of characters are interwoven into scenes and consist of a mixture of themes of infidelity, seduction, misrepresentation and elaborate swordplay, which create tension and confusion in addition to numerous comic episodes . The play expresses its author's objections to the vulnerability of women in Restoration society. Perhaps ironically, it also appeals to the audience's prurient interests by placing women in morally compromising situations. Loosely based on Thomaso's unpublished play, or The Wanderer (1664) by Thomas Killigrew, Behn's play is less obscene and more profound. The Rover has been widely critically acclaimed for being a feminist play, particularly a proto-feminist play which the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defined as "a philosophical tradition that anticipated modern feminist concepts and the discussion of women's issues then that the term feminist was non-existent before the 20th century. The writing is concerned with the unique experience of being a woman or, alternatively, writing designed to challenge existing preconceptions about gender. (Baldick, 2009: 128) In The Rover, Behn places characters in morally corrupt situations and circumstances to force the audience to reconsider preconceived ideas, inspiring the new feminist movement...... middle of paper ... ... quality prevents him from happiness. Through Angellica, Hellena and Florinda, Behn reveals that the libertine woman has no place in late Stuart society. This observation by the playwright constitutes a melancholy warning at a time when women seemed to be pushing the boundaries of tradition. Actresses who appear on stage may feel they have found a career of bodily expression, but in Behn's experience as a woman with male colleagues, this freedom is just a facade. “Women on stage faced fetishization and loss of status. Behn's commentary on the position of women in the late Stuart period serves to highlight the double standard of libertinism in court life and in the public sphere. (Staves, 2004: 73) By exposing and mocking the puritanical and cavalier constraints placed on women, she encourages viewers to re-evaluate the limited roles of women in the new era by giving her female characters a stronger voice..