The Coquette And The Boarding School Analysis

In the novel “The Coquette and The Boarding School,” Foster tells the tale from in an epistolary format. This type of narrative can be useful to teach English undergraduates for the story is told in an unbiased perspective. “The Coquette and The Boarding School,” honors female voices and shows a vivid image of women’s lives in the late 18th century. Foster’s novel can help professors show students a superb example of an epistolary novel, which was a popular format in the 18th century. Throughout the novel Foster does an excellent job create an image of what women’s culture was like in the 18th century. However, I was able to learn something new after reading a literary essay written by Gabriella Timbancaya, who is a student at the University of the Philippines. In Timbancaya’s essay “Freedom and constraint: Discourses on gender, politics and nation identity in Hannah Webster Foster’s ‘The
Coquette’,” she illustrates the false images portrayed in Foster’s epistolary. Timbancaya first analyzes the structure of educating women to obey norms, however, Timbancaya says that the structure would only foreshadow the ending of the theme and not add any context to the story. After Timbancaya continues and analyzes that if “The Coquette and The Boarding School,” was about telling women to obey these norms set for them in society; instead of a one sided view that the novel offer. Eventually the values the United States believed in would adopt new norms to support women. The society that Eliza Wharton lived in during the 18th century is somewhat similar to society in the 21st century. Timbancaya proves this on two levels that she mentions in her essay; imaginary freedom and imposition of values. Imaginary freedom comes from the perspective women had during the 18th century. Women believed that if they were not married they had power to do what they choose and be able to have the freedom that everyone else has. That image is false, women couldn’t even go in public sometimes unless they were escorted by their husband. If Foster gave Eliza any freedom she would have been married to Reverent Boyer since all he had a stable man and very humble. However, Eliza was a gold digger and wanted money something Major Sanford had to offer. Unfortunately Major Sanford only wanted Eliza for sexual purposes since she was poor and was considered to be whorish because of her flirtatious personality. The other conflict presented in “The Coquette and The Boarding School,” was the imposition of values. During the 18th century the norm set for women was that they were expected to by pure, quite, submissive to authority, and to follow in Republican beliefs. By following Republican beliefs women had to take the role as caregivers and teachers for their children. However, Eliza was not like this and did not want to be anything like the norm for women during the 18th century. Eliza was called a coquette for her flirtatious personality and lack of commitment to men she is looked down upon by society. Many men believed women who were considered coquettish during this time believed that they these women were not virtuosos enough to raise children. Another issue presented in Timbancaya’s essay, is that there is a double standard in “The Coquette and The Boarding School,” regarding sexuality.
Women are told to be pure and not act like a coquette they are immediately looked down at when they show even the slightest signs of sexual liberation, and men tend to judge them for their actions. However, if the protagonist was a man in this novel society wouldn’t care if he slept around with a bunch of women. In that case the women are considered the villains for sleeping around. Major Sanford has a reputation in the novel for seducing women and has been referred to as a rake. However, even though Major Sanford is classified for his repetitive sexual conduct he is still talked about highly in society. Since Major Sanford is part of the upper class in society he is still repetitively invited to these parties despite being known as a womanizer. Since Eliza is not doing so well financially she would be considered a tramp or a prostitute; even though she doesn’t even mean to come off as flirtatious it’s just part of her
personality. The last point that Timbancaya makes in her essay is the truth behind the ‘freedom,’ Eliza and Sanford both believe they have. Eliza and Sanford both view marriage as a prison that takes away your freedom; that’s why Eliza rejects Mr. Boyer because he wants to settle down and the idea of settling down for Eliza is too much. However, both Eliza and Sanford reach a downfall that they both had a hand in. Lucy Freeman wrote to Eliza warning her about what could occur if she continued down the path she was already heading down; Eliza still didn’t listen to Lucy. Eliza misses out on an opportunity to obtain a secure and stable lifestyle all for a womanizer who ends up hurting Eliza even more. Sanford wrote to Charles Deighton talking about how he was going to have sexual relations with Eliza. Compared to the Letters Mr. Boyer were righting to Mr. Shelby about how Eliza was a fair and beautiful girl that he fell head over heels for. During the 18th century many people would have told Eliza to give Mr. Boyer a chance since Sanford is a jerk who uses women for sexual needs. Even in the 21st century people would say to stick with the stable and secure man who is known to be humble than go for the bad boy who ends up using them for sex. This is how Foster foreshadows society in the 21st century from her novel, “The Coquette and The Boarding School.” She is able to illustrate how people view others based on their actions and what they wear, also by the amount of money they make.