What is the author's style in The Rover by Aphra Behn?

Aphra Behn made liberal use of the "aside" to convey the fears and thoughts of her characters. In fact, there are sixty-five of them in The Rover. An aside is a comment directed toward the audience in a stage whisper that the other characters do not hear. Thus, there is an assumption of candor from a character who breaks the action to address a comment to the audience. Often, Behn uses the aside to chronicle the emotional reactions of an eavesdropping character to the action he or she witnesses. This way, the audience hears the character's disposition to what has happened. When Hellena discovers Willmore's interest in Angellica, the audience does not yet know she has fallen in love with him, so her jealousy, communicated in brief asides, conveys her feelings and also helps to move the plot forward. In other places, Behn's use of the aside reinforces the physical action, making sure that the audience understands them. For example, when the lovers parlay with each other from behind masks, the asides help the audience distinguish the characters from each other. At other times, the aside serves to communicate a character's intention, which may not turn out as he or she expects. For example, when Angellica remarks, "His words go to the very soul of me," the audience can tell that she is truly falling in love with him, that her seductive manner is not simply motivated by the usual goals of a courtesan with a prospective client. Behn uses the aside in the manner typical of Restoration dramatists. The technique would later evolve into one that underscored the comedic elements of the play, but throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the aside served to inform the audience of a character's true inner feelings and intentions.