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Gender
Charke’s gender fluidity is one of the most prominent themes throughout the autobiography. Charke begins bending her gender through her attire from as young as four years old, when she puts on an adolescent performance by strolling around her neighborhood in her father’s stolen clothing. This is something she continues doing as she grows up and becomes more involved in the theater. The varying attire throughout her autobiography allows Charke to “use clothing to bend her gender, sex, social status, and identity” and by doing so as frequently as she does, “her body becomes a manifestation of gender fluidity.” Additionally, Charke uses objects and props as tools for her gender expression. Returning to the previous example of her dressing up at age four, Charke’s use of both broom and sword are phallic symbols that help her present masculinely. The broom is what she uses to actually gain access to Cibber’s clothes and wig, giving her the opportunity “to enter into the performance of her desired gender.” Then, she swaps the broom for a sword, which hinders her ability to move around freely, yet is the finishing touch on her performance. The way in which Charke picks and disgards these phallic symbols “emphasize the fluidity in her performance… as well as the awkwardness of a gender binary.” Charke is never truly ashamed of her cross-dressing and gender fluidity (except, perhaps, when it comes to the strenuous relationship she has with her father). She crossdresses liberally and repeatedly to gain new economic opportunities and escape tricky situations whenever and wherever she could. Despite this continuous use of cross-dressing, Charke never openly reveals her motivations for doing so. Rather than give readers an explanation, Charke’s audience is forced to face the “awkwardness one can feel when confronted with genders that move beyond the binarized matrix” of male and female.

Sexuality
Through Charke’s cross-dressing and embracement of both feminine and masculine identities, Charke’s sexuality is critically debated. There are some critics who believe that Charke’s crossdressing has nothing to do with her sexuality at all, and that her cross-dressing and embracing of masculine ideals is motivated more so by her need to to subvert her father. Other critics' perspectives largely view Charke’s transgressive actions of cross-dressing and taking on typical male roles as something that aligns more with her gender identity rather than her sexuality, especially when considering that Charke never explicitly acknowledges her cross-dressing is due to her sexuality (though she does state it is not anyone’s business other than her own). Other critics call upon other women’s attraction to Charke while she is in disguise in order to suggest that “Charke’s self-representation displaces gendered norms from centrality and attempts instead to construct a specifically sexual identity inconsistent with gender’s binary codes.” These critics acknowledge her gender and sexuality as being linked, and that in the record of her life, she does call attention to how other women find her sexually attractive when she is passing as a man. Charke finds joy in how she is able to “keep up to the well-bred Gentlemen.” While the text does not contain many implications of sexuality outside of her two husbands, critics argue there is implicit reference of Charke’s sexual preference towards women.

Performance
Charlotte Charke’s father was Colley Cibber, a playwright and theater owner, and therefore she grew up acting in a multitude of plays. Because of Charke’s prolific career as an actress, many critics discuss how the theater and performance are intertwined into the narrative. Her attachment to the theater is also indicated by her numerous references to popular plays of the time in her narrative, as well as her consistent return to the stage throughout her life. Thus, it makes sense that her autobiography itself could be seen as a performance. This becomes evident at the very beginning of A Narrative, when Charke writes and addresses a letter to herself. Immediately, her identity is destabilized as she splits into “herself as the autobiographer and the subject of her autobiography." The splintering of her identity makes it become something that she can perform, making Charke both the playwright and the starring actress of her own story.

The theme of performance also ties back into Charke's gender identity and expression as she navigates societal expectations and challenges traditional gender norms through her various roles on and off the stage. Because of the shift in gender perceptions of the eighteenth century, a theatrical performance by an actor was closely associated to the true character of the person playing the role; instead of an actor embodying a role only for the stage, the audience's perception of such character performance became recognized as the identity of the performer themselves. Charke toyed with this idea as she “flits between the many different positions of identity that she takes on both onstage and off… Charlotte never really lets the reader know when her performance as a ‘man’ has stopped and when that of a ‘woman’ has begun." Through her performance of gender, she twists the norms of the time and manages to exist in a space between the binary of male and female. Charke also performs gender throughout her life through her cross-dressing and varying jobs. Some scholars argue that “as [Charke] flits between the many different positions of identity that she takes on both onstage and off Charlotte never really lets the reader know when her performance as a ‘man’ has stopped and when that of a ‘woman’ has begun." However, through her use of clothing, wigs, and objects, Charke reveals the seams of her performance of different genders. By bringing attention to such material objects, Charke “invites the audience… to take part in active reading and interpretation—and to pay attention to her performance." By performing gender, Charke is able to exist between the binary of male and female. As Higa argues, “[Charke’s] gender performances are neither definitively male nor definitively female, and we cannot argue that she moves back and forth between polarities if she is constantly residing between or beyond them."

Comedy
Throughout Charke’s narrative there is a continuous theme of humor and comedy. She begins the narrative by dedicating the author’s statement to herself, then proceeds to exaggerate and poke fun at her own writing ability, “Tho’ flattery is universally known to be the Spring from which Dedications frequently flow, I hope I shall escape that Odium so justly thrown on poetical Petitioners, notwithstanding my Attempt to illustrate those wonderful qualifications by which you have so eminently distinguished yourself, and gives you claim to the title of a non-pareil of the age” and “I am certain, there is no one in the World more fit than myself to be laughed at." Charke’s sense of humor is maintained throughout the entire piece as she weaves and incorporates it throughout both her melancholy and joyous moments of her life. However, critics of her time often overlooked this comedic theme, considering Charke’s humor to be a miserable yearning to appease her father and an attempt to enter into his good graces once again. Other critics such as Sue Churchill argue Charke’s clear use of comedy defies her supposed misery. She states that though Charke lived an obviously turbulent lifestyle, Charke continually undercut her sadness with laughter. For example, when Charke dresses in her father’s clothes as a child, rather than enjoying the clothes just for herself, she ventures out into the crowd, choosing to entertain the masses rather than to shy away from attention. She delights in the joy and laughter of the crowd, only becoming upset when she is removed from their watch. Churchill also calls out those critics by saying that they completely miss the jokes and simply do not understand the vast knowledge and clever interpretations Charke exhibits both on literary form and the theater culture of the time.

The Power of Love
As evidenced from the opening paragraph, love in the world of The Fair Jilt is immensely powerful for both good and bad. In the case of Tarquin, we see the negative impacts of the power of love. He is deeply infatuated with Miranda, to the point where he willingly lets her use him as a tool in her varying schemes. He even ultimately takes the punishment for her, only narrowly escaping death due to a botched execution, because he is so enamored with her.

Outside of Tarquin's character, Behn shapes the idea of the power of love by writing about love as something empowering. Although many of Miranda’s actions are undeniably questionable, she uses sex and attraction towards her to her advantage, allowing her to get away with (or at least attempt) her various plans. This was the beginning of what would become typical in women’s amatory fiction-- that is, an exploration of female sexuality, love, and power.