The Fair Penitent By Nicholas Rowe

I really enjoyed this play; as a matter of fact "The Fair Penitent" is my favourite thus far. The scene where Horatio confronts Calista with the letter revealing the truth of her surreptitious love for Lothario is one of the most interesting scenes, and I believe that it is the scene where Calista's young age is revealed through her actions of claiming that the letter was forged. Calista is very scared in this particular scene and she says and does whatever it takes to get out of trouble, like a young girl would do. A lot of people interpret Calista’s behavior to be intolerable, self-centered and imprudent, which I will not argue, but it is somewhat justifiable because they are also the actions of a scared, heart-broken, and confused young girl. Maybe a much older woman would have reacted differently; perhaps by behaving like that society dictates that a “proper and ideal patriarchal woman” should. Many forget that Calista was deceived by Lothario. Calista thought that by sleeping with Lothario, he would marry her and they would live happily ever after, which unfortunately for her, was nit the case. So, although Calista’s character is not the most lovable that we have encountered, I still have some sympathy because to throw any naive, young girl into that same situation, the outcome probably would not have changed a whole lot.