The Coquette Sparknotes

Elizabeth and Johns relationship is certainly not an easy one. Although having been married with two children the intrusion of Abigail could not have come at a worse time. With Elizabeth ill and Abigail’s personality being such a contrast John felt it as an escape from his wife’s absence. The affair that John had with Abigail puts a strain on their relationship creating a physical and emotional divide that the audience easily pick up on. On top of the affair, living in a puritan society which can be demeaning to women makes the

To marry for money and not love is frowned upon as a social norm, but is also seen as an opportunity for women to rise in the social hierarchy. Though, love is to be the reason why bonds like marriage exist. Being a woman in the nineteenth century limits social advancement and makes it seem impossible without wealth, a background of family fortune, or matrimony to a man labeled high class. Emma Woodhouse, from the novel Emma written by Jane Austen, defines what it means to seek stature through marriage and how couples can aid in contexts such as social groups. Austen clearly covers social groups in her novel, but making the novels focal point circumvent around Emma. We look beyond how class enables opportunity for women and see just how

The idea of seduction is present throughout the novel The Coquette. This is one of Foster’s most well known novels, and as critics have said “the most read novel in the 19th century besides the Bible.” The novel was one of the first to exploit sexuality with a woman’s point of view in a not so reserved format (Baym). Foster’s main point that she was trying to get across to her audience was the art of a woman mastering the expectations of what society wanted from them in an upper-class level of the community against the influence of the individual trying the follow her own heart (“Introduction”). This main idea is related to the country of the United States in almost a form of an analogy.

The Coquette, written by Hannah Webster Foster in 1797, chronicles the life of an affluent woman in the 18th century. There are a few themes that are presented throughout the whole novel: correspondence, sexual freedom, and ideal womanhood. Elizabeth Whitman has been an icon of American history since the 19th century because of her bravery and contempt for the caged position of women in society. It is stated that the tombstone of Elizabeth Whitman is a popular tourist attraction; “her grave was a popular destination for New England travelers, who beat paths to the far corner of Danvers’s Old South Cemetery through the entire nineteenth century.” (Waterman)

Boyer is condescending and demonstrates her idea of an “excellent partner” (27). Lucy, like most women at the time, found marriage to be a way of securing a socially and financially affluent future; her description of Mr. Boyer, whose “taste,” “manners” and “morals,” are highly regarded, supports the materialism of the time period. Baker finds that “The Coquette is considered a tragic novel in that it depicts the seduction and fall of a young woman, and the reader can track the tragic disintegration of Eliza Wharton against her flagging commitment to precision and clarity in her language, her mode of self-expression;” however, it seems that Eliza possesses the intelligence, as well as the sophistication to understand. Foster's emphasis on the value of language alerts the reader to another movement in the novel, one that the reader might celebrate: the voice of her society is awakened to its compromised public voice regarding virtue, honor, and friendship. Eliza's queries on language throughout the novel are ultimately shifted to her female circle, whose members recognize the need for their language to reflect more clearly the reality of their world”

In due course, the following analysis will examine deeper into how the female characters struggle to adhere to their social ideals and how the deviation of gender roles affect the characters’ social status and demises. First, Eliza Wharton’s attainment of freedom after her husband’s death exemplifies the notion of escapism from marriage and the subjugation of individual social status. Marriage during the Federalist Era was perceived as a contract to elevate one’s social status in the society. To women, it was an implicit imprisonment because their interaction with the society was limited, and they also had to bear another entitlement that society could easily use against them, which was being married or widowed women. In The Coquette, after Eliza’s husband death, her life takes a turn as she becomes a widow and a person with entitled class after her husband’s prestigious social status.

This drastic change in public opinion can be best understood by analyzing the case of Abigail and Asa Bailey. In 1792, Abigail Bailey was quickly granted a divorce from Asa Bailey. However, Abigail waited twenty-two years to file this petition for divorce, as Asa, first had an affair just three years after their marriage in 1770. It is interesting to compare Abigail’s case to Ellen’s because in both cases, each woman repeatedly cites her hesitation to take legal action because of what she believes to be her duty to her husband. However, what is considered cruel enough to justify breaking

In this paper I argue how Jane Austen reflects society norms and constrains and how this can be translated into marriage. I question the nature of each of the four unions exposed by itemizing them and explaining the motives that made the characters make a decision about which compromise would benefit them the most, or not. I contradict the spread idea of arranged marriage- taking into account that there are some exceptions-, and how they could be based on love, or also money and other interests. To finish, I conclude by claiming that Victorian society made great impact on how people behave and the pressure they had to face. ¬Even though the main characters, and the relationship between them, are Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, this paper is concerned with four of the wedding that take place in the novel so to reflect what kind of engagements are exposed and their characteristics.

Mrs. Bennet’s desperation is especially noticeable when Elizabeth, the protagonist, is given the opportunity to marry Mr. Collins, a distant cousin and a wealthy land owner. After learning of Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Collins, she implores Mr. Bennet to force Elizabeth to change her mind. In her final efforts to convince Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet addresses,

Discussing the consequences of violating the gender norms of society, Foster shows the effects through two characters. In this novel, Eliza chooses to be a coquette, and loses her stable marriage to Mr. Boyer, because of her actions. Falling to her fancy instead of reason, Eliza states, “I am pleased with nobody; still less with myself. I look around for happiness, and find it not.” Expressing her unhappiness in her choice of picking her fancy rather than security and stability, Eliza starts to feel the despair, devastation, and regret. Feeling the effects of defying societal norms for her own amusement and pleasure, Eliza feels the strain in her life. Moreover, Major Sanford, the man Eliza chooses to be with even though his title in society

Living in a world of hypocrisy is not a foreign concept in today’s society. Likewise, even writings from the 1700s are filled to the brim with themes that are still relevant to the world today. Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary writing, The Coquette, carries themes of marriage, freedom, and virtue, all of which are hypocritical ideas of the 21st century. Each of these themes has a centered focus around women, and the stereotypical role they are expected to play.

Respect, mutuality, equality—what do these three words have in common? They are all fundamental components to what makes a relationship successful and fulfilling. By the end of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, this is the kind of relationship that Jane and Rochester achieve. However, they are only able to arrive at this point because of Jane’s quest for equality through personal independence, something American feminism establishes as unique in a Victorian society reinforced by patriarchal values. American feminism examines portrayals of women characters in literature and in doing so, exposes the patriarchal ideology implicit in works and shows how systematic masculine dominance can permeate the literature (Murfin 299).

Beneath the glamour of the Regency period, lied a society that relied heavily on its definite social hierarchy and the status of money. A woman from the Regency period had no other option but to find a husband, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortunate must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). Women were often objectified and treated as a possession rather than a life partner. Moreover, marriage seemed like a business proposition rather than a matter of love and happiness. In order to do so, the couple must go through the process of a highly established society that had its rules and regulations. Class structure played an influential role during the Regency period, as it was rarely changeable and marriage matches often depended on it.

In 1980s England, marriage was mostly made for love rather than wealth, and women had the right to vote and work due to the campaigns of second-wave feminism of the mid-20th century. Her juxtaposition of tense: “To marry was a great prize … no wonder Jane Austen’s heroines were so absorbed by the matter. It is the stuff of our women’s magazines, but it was the stuff of their life, their very existence” shows the relegation of marriage to a luxury rather than an important goal for women. Weldon reshapes readers’ critical opinions of Mrs Bennet, formed by 1980s society’s trivialised attitude towards marriage, by explaining her behaviour in relation to her society’s restrictive expectations of marriage and laws of entailment: “No wonder Mrs Bennet, driven half-mad by anxiety for her five unmarried daughters, knowing they would be unprovided for when her husband died … made a fool of herself in public.” Her critical tone: “It is too easy to believe that because something is traditionally women’s work, that it is worth nothing” demonstrates domesticity is no longer the sole option for 1980s women.

Marriage in Pamela and Roxana Eighteenth century England's social values irrevocably intertwined woman's virtue and marriage, particularly for the upper class. This intertwining arose from the fact that wealth was land, and in order to make certain that the land passed down to a legitimate heir the mother's virtue must be beyond doubt, ensuring that family honor remain unblemished and wealth followed the proper line of succession. As a result virtue, followed by pedigree, became the single most important asset any girl could possess since its loss marked a girl as ruined and precluded any chance of a successful marriage, the only acceptable career open to a woman of upper class status. I propose