Self-Reliance in The Coquette
Hannah W. Foster's The Coquette, written in 1797, takes place in a time period and social arena where a woman's primary role consisted of finding a suitable husband and becoming contently married. Forced into a narrow confine of her role from her early childhood, a girl became caught in a world where she lacked any true power. Controlled by her society, it was difficult for a female to find her own voice and thoughts, without even displaying that self to the world. A woman rarely remained true to herself. Yet, The Coquette's main character, Eliza Wharton, lives the life of a young woman struggling to be self-reliant within the constraints created by her society. In this context, the word "self-reliant" refers to its definition in Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophical essay entitled "Self-Reliance." In his essay, Emerson defines self-reliance as the ability "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men (Emerson! 23)..." In general, self-reliance refers to the ability to remain true to oneself. Specifically, Eliza accomplishes self-reliance by not immediately accepting Reverend Boyer's marriage proposal, as all of her peers believe
Sanford loved Eliza, but he only married Nancy to obtain part of her family's affluence. However, after she refused to marry Reverend Boyer and he left her, Eliza's cheerful disposition drastically descended to unbearable melancholy and depression. Although all of these people are rewarded by society for accepting its standards, other characters are punished. In Eliza's society, women lived in a very confined role, one that was not part of the outside world. " One cannot speak with one's own voice when no possible way for it to be heard exists, since a thousand other voices drown it out. She says quite bluntly to her mother when writing about potentially marrying Reverend Boyer, "My disposition is not calculated for that sphere (Foster 39). After suffering for several years, she has an affair with the married Major Sanford and becomes pregnant. She began as a lovely, energetic, and charismatic woman. She replied that I had wrong ideas of freedom, and matrimony (Foster 30). New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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Acceptance Essays
