The inclusion of Fantomina in only the latest edition of the Norton Anthology can be attributed to a rising awareness of the impact of misogyny on our view of history. Whereas before Fantomina was perhaps thought of as inconsequential because it was written by a woman; a serious effort is now being made to examine how women of ages past thought and reflected their circumstances through writing. Eliza Haywood presents us a tale suggestive of several other works we've read by English authors. Her dealings with gender confusion and usage of deception make me wish we'd read this before writing our rough drafts. A direct correlation can be drawn between this story and Twelfth Night. While the gender confusion in Shakespeare's play is more literal Haywood's, can be seen in how Fantomina's actual pursuit and conquest of Beauplaisir reflects and overpowers Beauplaisir's belief that he is pursuing and taking these women. The ending is dissimilar to the happy one of Shakespeare's play. This ending and indeed many of Beauplaisir's actions can be placed within English literature as a commentary, by a woman, on men of the Restoration period. The ending is neither tragedy nor comedy but instead an abrupt halting of the intrigue, embodied by Fantomina, that fills the entire story. Does Beau offer to marry her? Does he kill himself for his ineptitude? Does he understand how ingenious her scheming was? No to all. He makes some halfhearted gestures and then gets on with his life. Boring. It is funny to see that Fantomina's actions drive the entire story while when Beau has the chance to drive it home he simply...doesn't. I think this is Haywood telling men of her time that they are not as noble nor nearly as daring as they think. And that women such as her protagonist (and herself) suffer from their lack of imagination and devotion. Another reason this was perhaps excluded was that not only does the protagonist act unladylike but her actions during the story are not derided by the author. Indeed the only chastisement comes from the character of the mother who is portrayed as a fairly dull and predicatble conservative lady. The dynamic nature of the protagonist casts this active, intelligent, and sexually aggressive woman in a positive light. Which, according to Nortons 1-7 , is just not the way to portray women. I think the addition is very valuable as it shows how an intelligent woman can poke a little fun at men especially when one considers that her contemporaries did their fair share of lambasting women in their satire.