oman some power within her home, but in the outside world all power is placed upon her husband. In the introduction to The Coquette Cathy Davidson raises the question "Is the sovereignty of the domain within the home really freedom if so limited (15)?" Freedom and self-reliance are inexorably intertwined; without the first the second is virtually impossible.
             To become self-reliant, one must also be able to survive, and Eliza's society never prepared her to survive except by being a man's wife. Self-reliance was something that women may have in some way wanted but, "where women have no social, political, or legal status except through their husbands, the deck is stacked irrevocably against the female player (Davidson 20)." 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. Conc
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