The Nature of a Mistress-Servant Relationship in Daniel...

Relationships play a large part in the average modern day persons everyday life, just as relationships were important in the past. Although types of companionships have somewhat changed over time, the presence and importance of them still remains. Viewing, analysing and comparing other individuals relationships to our own is something most people do, as a sort of assurance that things are natural. This is why many people are interested in novels about ways that other human beings interact with individuals and groups. Daniel Defoes character Roxana has her own way of interacting with and manipulating people. In his novel Roxana, Defoe uses examples of extreme faithfulness from the Amy to demonstrate the intimate relationship present†¦show more content†¦At the start of the novel, Roxana gives Amy the task of abandoning her children. Amy performs this task without asking any questions, as a loyal servant of friend should. The children are only brought back into the novel when Roxana realizes that one of her daughters is living in her home as a cook maid. Amy is again given the task of dealing with her mistresss children. She dresses up and visits them, giving them money on their mothers part, while careful not to reveal the secret about Roxana. When one of the children figures out who her mother is, Amy kills her against Roxanas wishes. This goes to show how loyal she is: even though she disobeyed her mistress, she treated the incident as if the daughter had wronged her, rather than Roxana. This may just be what the murder is about – Amy has been close to Roxana for so long, sharing the secret identity, that it has almost become her own secret in many ways. Her choice of words - â€Å"shell ruin us all† (272) (using â€Å"us† instead of â€Å"you†)– shows that she feels as much in trouble as her mistress; on the other hand, her loyalty is still evident when she tells Roxana: â€Å"Ill put you out of your Pain, and her too† (273). Amy is obviously thinking about preventing her mistress from suffereing, more than she is thinking about herself. Amy again takes on the family when she confronts Roxanas first husband. She finds out all there is to know and reports back to her mistress, as she does in many cases.