"The Coquette"

Paper Summary:

In her 1797 novel, "The Coquette," Hannah Foster presents her critical analysis of female freedom and the politics of courtship and marriage within the restrictive confines of a conventional seduction novel. The paper shows that through her protagonist, Eliza Wharton, Foster creates a woman who goes against the social conformity of a virtuous life, questioning the restrictions that marriage placed on women.

From the Paper:

"The real, final decline of Eliza's physical and mental stability occurs when she learns that she is pregnant, "At the first discovery, absolute distraction seized the soul of Eliza, which has since terminated in a fixed melancholy" (Foster, 140). Eliza's moral redemption rests on her acceptance of the ethics of female self-sacrifice. Paradoxically, it is only by losing her fife that Eliza regains part of the power she relinquished from her seduction. On the other hand, her death finally puts her beyond the reach of the libertine who has pursued her, physically as well as psychologically, throughout the novel."

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