Her disguise as a boy allows the male voyeurs in the audience to see her legs: a risqu proposition in the 1600s and one that sold a lot of tickets. Florinda is the Virginal Ingnue character, usually a passive and swooning damsel who must be rescued. (Behn gives her a rather more backbone, however, by twice allowing her to take her fate in to her own hands, when she goes to rescue her brother from the duel, and when she decides to run away from her family to an uncertain poverty with Belvile). Frederick and Valeria are confidante characters who ease the plot along either by scheming or by allowing the main characters share their feelings. Antonio, as an Italian, is a Machiavellian villain.( Brock University paper).
Restoration drama audience took great heed and delight in seeing new fashion and mannerism on the stage whether it was the recognizable types or appearance behaviour. For example when Helena describes what life will be if Florinda marries the rich but old Don Vincentio,.
Helena Marry Don Vincentio! Hang me, such a wedlock would be worse than adultery with another man. I had rather see her in Hostel de Dieu, to waste her youth there in vows, and be handmaid to lazars and cripples, than to lose it in such a marriage. (Act 1 sc (i) 136-140).
and when Belvile is mocked for behaving like a soulful lover.
Blunt Heyday! Adsheartlikings, smile! By this light the man is quite spoiled. . Adsheartlikings, our Cupids are like the cooks of the camp: they can roast or boil a woman, but they have none of the tricks to set them off; no hogoes to make the sauce pleasant and the stomach sharp. (Act 2 sc(i) 33- 40).
Such behavioural clichs thrilled the audience. Though because of this interest Restoration drama has been criticized for its superficiality, however it can also be viewed as an aspect of the Enlightenment and Charles IIs Royal Society, with its new interests surfacing the society.
