Alovisa, Ciamara, and Violetta—Victims of Gluttonous Affection? Ian Kizer College

When viewers deconstruct the exaggeration, grandeur, and boldness of Baroque art they usually focus on overly exaggerated and unrestrained representations of lighting, motion, and surrounding decoration. By contrast, the themes of literature seem to express the period with greater specificity, by way of the medium’s opportunity of direct communication. Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess seems to lend itself to the Baroque theme of excess in variety of notable ways, and one could illustrate this through noting the exaggerated descriptions of elegant surroundings and atmospheres, overly dramatic depictions of the constraints placed on female emotion, or the open portrayal of female sexual desire. For the purposes of a concise explanation of why Haywood’s work functions as representation of the Baroque, focusing on just one element of excess is necessary in order to adequately describe a particular theme of the novel and how it expresses the Baroque. Debatably, the most provocative way Haywood coveys the spirit of the Baroque is through three women and their link of fatal attraction to the novel’s conflicted ‘hero,’ Count D’elmont. Alovisa, Ciamara, and Violetta all eventually boldly express their feelings to D’elmont without...