In her play The Rover, Aphra Behn uses the treatment of women to suggest the presence of a strong patriarchic society and what harm can become of it.  The main female character Florinda is manipulated, used, and treated horribly by men in instances of near-rape, battering and beating, and foul language among other things.  Behn also uses Willmore, one of the main male characters, and his attitude towards women to prove her point.  By doing this, Behn is suggesting patriarchy is dangerous for women, and their lack of fighting against it presupposes what can happen to women over time if this strong patriarchic society is allowed to flourish.
       In act three, Florinda is almost raped by a drunken Willmore.  He doesn’t know who she is, he thinks she’s just, “A female!  By this light, a woman!  I’m a dog if it be not a very wench” (III.v.16 –17).  This shows that he only sees her as a sex object.  He then tries to take advantage of her.  As she puts up a struggle, he says, “Come, come, take it or I’ll put it up again…Why, how now, mistress, are you so high i’th’ mouth a pistole won’t down with you? ...Come, no struggling to be gone…I’m for ye” (III.v.67 – 72), trying to force her into submission.  In another instance in act four, the same thing nearly happens again to Florinda when she ventures into Blunt’s house.  Blunt has been tricked by another woman and decides to take his revenge out on that woman by sleeping with Florinda.  He gets very physical with her and Florinda protests with, “Dare you be so cruel?” (IV.v.51).  Blunt replies with this heartless speech: “Cruel? ...as a galley slave, or a Spanish whore…I will kiss and beat thee all over, kiss and see thee all over; thou shalt lie with me too, not that I care for the enjoyment, but to let thee see I have ta’en deliberated malice to thee, and will be revenged on one whore for the sins of another” (IV.v.53 – 57), indicating that he only sees her as a thing, rather than a person.  These instances of how horribly Florinda is treated show how Behn thinks women are seen and even treated in the patriarchic society.  Florinda, and all women, appear as just playthings to be used as one wishes.
Willmore is the prime example of how horribly women are treated in this play.  He nearly rapes Florinda, he attempts to seduce Hellena upon first meeting, he sleeps with Angellica after he’s made a vow of love to Hellena, and he makes sexual comments to just about every woman he encounters.  Behn also uses him to show how easily women are manipulated by men.  Women are only sex objects to Willmore.  When he and Hellena meet again at the end of the play, Willmore convinces her that he is trustworthy.  Then he launches off into trying to persuade her to sleep with him again, just as he did when he first met her: “Therefore, dear creature, since we are so well agreed, let’s retire to my chamber; and if ever thou wert treated with such savory love!  Come, my bed’s prepared for such a guest all clean and sweet as thy fair self” (V.i.430 – 434); however, she wants them to be married first.  With what appears to be out of disparity, he agrees.  Willmore is only concerned with sex.  As he says, his bed is already prepared for the deed!  Manipulating women and using them to fulfill his selfish sexual desires is his only purpose in this play.  By titling this work after him — for he was a rover — Behn places the emphasis on him and the way he treats women.  Having him treat women as he does, suggests the society is largely patriarchic and causes women to suffer just as the women in this play did.
The women who are suffering don’t put up very strong fights against the male domination in this play.  For example, during the scene where Blunt is trying to sleep with Florinda as revenge against another woman, Florinda doesn’t argue with him very much or put up a strong fight.  She merely says things like, “…must I be sacrificed for the crimes of the most infamous of my sex?” (IV.v.63 – 64) and “I think he will not, dares not be so barbarous” (IV.v.88).  She even mentions that her love Belvile will not like Blunt taking advantage of her as he plans.  She doesn’t struggle against him or anything; instead she basically hands herself over to him when she says, “…if you find me not worth Belvile’s care, use me as you please” (IV.v.125 – 126).  There is no fight in her whatsoever.  Hellena also gives in quickly to Willmore’s persuasion in act five, suggesting that women fall victim to men too easily.
One might argue that because Florinda ended up happily marrying Belvile, and Hellena ended up marrying Willmore, Behn is not taking a stab at patriarchy in society.  If patriarchy is so bad, why do these women end up happy at the end?  Firstly, Hellena and Willmore marry not out of love, but for other reasons.  Willmore only wants to marry her so he can get her into his bed faster, so he says anything that he thinks will convince her to give in.  Hellena, having never been with a man before, has no one to compare Willmore’s manipulative and degrading personality to.  She falls victim to male domination and will most likely suffer a heartless, sex-centered marriage as a result.  Florinda and Belvile have to go through drastic means in order to be married.  They truly love each other, or so it seems, but because of the patriarchic society, Florinda’s father and brother won’t allow them to be married.  She was treated as a prize awarded to the most eligible candidate.  Here, Behn is showing how damaging the patriarchic tradition of arranged marriages can be to those involved.  Even though they ended up together, they had to fight a battle to do so.  By ending the play this way, Behn is saying people who love each other shouldn’t have to fight to be together, thereby proving this patriarchic practice unfair.  
By placing an emphasis on the man who uses women as sex objects by titling her play after him; by having almost all the female characters in the play treated horribly, used, and manipulated; and having the female characters barely putting up a fight, Aphra Behn suggests the heavily patriarchic society that exists is too extensive and is dangerous for the women in it.