Aphra Behn deliberately set The Rover in a carnival scene this theme of disguise enables the characters of the play to become less constrained by their identities and have a more relaxed attitude to love sex and marriage The Rover was set in the 1650s this is particularly interesting because the characters seem more futuristic as the women in the play are resisting the constraints of a patriarchal society Behn was introducing controversy by having two women as main characters to the play partic