The games of love, here, involve Florinda, destined to marry an old rich guy or her brother's friend, and Belville, a young gallant who rescues her and wins her heart, along with Hellena, Florinda's sister, and Willmore, a young rake who falls in love with her. There are no adult s present throughout the play, though Florinda's brother is an authority figure, blocking her from a marriage of love. Ultimately, though, even the brother doesn't have much to say in the matter. The women -- Florinda and Hellena -- take the situation pretty much into their own hands, deciding what they want. This is, after all, a play written by a woman. And Aphra Behn was not just any woman. She was one of the first women to make a living as a writer, which was quite a feat in her day. Behn was also known for her escapades as a spy and for her various other nefarious activities.
So, Behn ran her own life (at least it appears that she had a great deal of freedom, from what little we know of her life). Drawing upon her own experience and her own rather revolutionary ideas, she creates in this play women who are very different from any of the female characters in previous period plays. She creates for her audience a very different view of women, perhaps much more realistic, with the threat of violence toward women, in the form of rape, lurking in the shadows -- a much darker view of society than any of the other playwrights would have created.
If the plot wasn't convoluted enough, it is further complicated when we place Angelica Bianca into the picture, providing us with a searing indictment against society and the state of moral decay. When Willmore breaks his oath of love to her by falling in love with Hellena, she goes crazy, brandishing a pistol and threatening to kill him. Willmore admits his inconstancy, saying, "Broke my Vows? Why, where hast thou lived? Amongst the gods! For I never heard of mortal man that has not broke a thousand vows." He is an interesting representation of the careless and callous gallant of the Restoration, concerned mainly with his own pleasures, and not interested in whom he hurts along the way. Of course, at the end, all of the conflicts are resolved with prospective marriages and release from the threat of marriage to an old man or the church. Willmore closes the last scene by saying, "Egad, thou'rt a brave girl, and I admire thy love and courage. Lead on; no other dangers they can dread/ Who ventured in the storms o' th' marriage bed."
