Following the Revolutionary War, traditions in the United States continued to mimic those of Europeans. Despite this, the newly founded Republic, based on freedom and personal liberty, urged women to gradually develop new roles in society, while still remaining in their tradition roles. Hannah Webster Foster provides a glimpse into the life of women and their gender roles in her novel The Coquette, depicting the value marriage, motherhood and women’s education in the turn of the 18th century.
The conflict within The Coquette arises from society’s demand for marriage. Eliza Warton, receiving affection from both Boyer and Stanford, while feeling pressured to marry, is forced to choose between personal freedom or accepting society’s expectations …show more content…
With the new ideas of personal liberty, women took it upon themselves to not only help their children become better citizens through education, but to educate themselves as well. Eliza writes to Boyer, telling him that women should flourish with the country, they should suffer when it suffers and should love their country as men love the country (pg. 841). Women began to be educated, as educated mothers would be able to better raise their sons with the values of which America stands for. Although their role in society still remained the same, raising children and being a good wife, by education being correlated with motherhood, women’s roles in the future would be able to expand. Women would become responsible for the ethics of the household and developing their children emotionally and morally. Although this would not immediately change the roles of women in the new Republic, it would lead to the women’s suffrage movement, the Seneca Falls Convention and other women activist movements.
Gender roles of the 18th century are the central cause of the plot in The Coquette and while they align with the traditions of Europe, the novel also pushes beyond the stereotypes. Although ending in tragedy and deemed to be a warning, the novel did give young women a glimpse into the possibility of independence and suggested that male domination was purely optional. Depending upon the interpretation of the novel, one could perceived the novel to show young women the dangers of pressured marriage, as opposed to the dangers of Eliza’s coquettish