Aphra Behn wrote plays, poetry, and fiction, but my thesis will focus on two of her novellas: The Fair Jilt (1688) and The History of the Nun (1689), which have been largely overlooked by scholars and students of her work. The male Restoration rake was a popular figure of the time period, and society enjoyed new sexual freedoms. However, overt expressions of female sexuality were considered taboo. Behn's female characters, Miranda and Isabella, faced many obstacles on their paths to happiness. Society judged these women harshly because they disrupted the norm: men lived in a public sphere of the world whereas women occupied private spaces. Because Behn's heroines lived publicly, not only voicing their desires, but acting on them as well, society condemned them. In the following chapters, I argue that Miranda and Isabella appropriate the role of the Restoration male rake, I show that Behn created a complex array of roles for women, and I assert that her male characters are feminized as "ruined men". In the thesis, I conclude that Behn's ambivalent attitude about female sexuality in her novels is a result of her position as a professional, writing woman.