Love in Excess

Alovisa and Melantha are distinguished as bold women who openly assert their desires, yet they meet very different fates. How are these two women different or similar in their personalities, situations, and/or experiences? What is the significance of these similarities and contrasts in Haywood’s exploration of feminine agency?

Haywood repeatedly creates love triangles, in which two rivals compete for the affection of a single individual. How does this device impact the structure and themes of the novel? What common features tend to repeat in the different love triangles? How and why?

Haywood is considered an important contributor to amatory fiction (See: Background), alongside her fellow female writers, Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley. Compare Love in Excess to one of Behn’s or Manley’s major amatory texts. What themes, approaches, and/or techniques do the works have in common? What does such a comparative analysis reveal about the female literary culture of the time?

Love in Excess’s female characters have to navigate a complex web of both familial and social expectations throughout the novel. How are these expectations depicted and explored? What do they reveal about the roles and status of women in 18th-century Europe?

Eliza Haywood was an English writer, but she sets Love in Excess in locations in France and Italy. How does Haywood use these geographic settings to enhance the mood and themes of her novel? What opportunities do these settings create for her?

What is the role of coincidence in the plot, and how does this device impact the mood and tone of the novel? How do coincidental and often implausible events contrast with the complex machinations and schemes that the characters carry out?

How does Haywood explore the issues surrounding sexual desire and consent? How do gendered stereotypes influence notions of consent within the world of the novel?

What is the role of subplots and minor characters in the novel? Choose one or two examples and analyze them closely. What role does this subplot/minor character play, and what is their significance to the main plot?