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The Coquette The History Of Eliza Garnette Sparknotes

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The Coquette; or, the History of Eliza Wharton features a woman in early republican America who wants to be happy. Eliza Wharton’s fiancée dies before she is married, and she finds herself delighted at the chance to restructure her life to make her happy. Her pursuit of happiness in life is condemned and deemed immature by those around her, as well as her insistence on making her choices without input from her peers. Eliza Wharton matches Immanuel Kant’s definition of an Enlightened man in An Answer to the Question, “What is Enlightenment?” (1784) by deciding her actions “without the guidance of another.” The fact that she is a woman prevents her advance from being celebrated, and she is looked down upon for not following the advice of her …show more content…

That insistence upon her own happiness at the cost of the disapproval of her friends is not seen as simply wanting to have a nice time in her life. It is seen as Wharton wanting to flirt and waste her time with parties. Lucy Freeman, Wharton’s best friend, describes her in The Coquette; or, the History of Eliza Wharton as “[meaning] to exhibit a few more girlish airs” before she gets married (Foster 595). Freemen very strongly disapproves of this inclination, particularly when she has her own opinions about who and when Wharton should marry. Wharton only pleases Freeman when she gives in and gets engaged to the man her friend …show more content…

The word coquette is a feminization of the word coquet, which simply means wanton, and is a diminutive of coq, which means cock. To be a coquette is to display a feminized form of masculinity through flirting. Wharton is seen as a flirt who wants to make her own choices and wants those choices to result in her being happy, which is far too masculine for her to do. Being widely called a coquette rather than a flirt demonstrates the underlying reasoning behind the disapproval of those around her. Her masculine actions of making her decisions herself and focusing on herself when she makes those decisions makes her peers uncomfortable, and they twist that discomfort against her to shun her from

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During the 18th Century, the Enlightenment was introduced in Europe. This new movement brought about modernization of thinking about government and individualism, and reevaluated previous beliefs. The Enlightenment had many new Philosophers who helped spread their views on government. Philosophers were similar in ideas about the rights of citizens and people’s choice of which government they want, however they differed on the reason government existed and governmental power. Overall, the ideas were a substantial departure from previous ideas about human equality, absolute rulers, and the court system.

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In the colonial era, women did not have many rights, and people did not consider them as equals to men, especially in Puritan New England where the Puritan beliefs governed society. Society expected women to get married, have children, and obey their husbands; they considered anything outside of these limitations as radical confrontations to the law. The woman’s main contribution to society was to teach the young girls about the customs and appropriate behaviors of a woman (Jolliffe, Roskelly, 242.45). Strict barriers existed in a woman’s life, and if a woman were to break those boundaries, like Anne Hutchinson - a revolutionary Puritan spiritual advisor - did, critics accused them of being non-compliant and harmful to society. They considered

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The hot take that took Europeans by surprise is no longer just a thought and put into play in real life. The Enlightenment thought was transferred into books that we still read today. Some Enlightenment thoughts are individual and humanity as a whole can progress to perfection, tolerance is to be extended to other creeds and ways of life, and education should impart knowledge rather than mold feelings or develop character. Three major Enlightenment stories are Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, Tartuffe by Moliere, and Candide by Voltaire. Each author used different types of enlightenment ideals and put them into art.

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In Edith Wharton’s most remarkable novel, Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan Frome, is in love with a prohibited woman… his wife's cousin. His wife, Zeena, is a sick woman who has a villainous essence to her and an irrevocable hold on Ethan. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin and the woman Ethan is infatuated with. Through Ethan’s eyes, Mattie is described as youthful, attractive, and graceful basically everything Zeena isn’t.

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The Enlightenment was a period of time that stressed the importance of reason and individual ideas. Many philosophers published works criticizing a country’s monarch or divulging the flaws they saw in a system within the government, such as the justice system. The Enlightenment also stressed the importance of education, and as a result of this, literacy rates experienced a major upward trend. Now able to read the philosopher’s works, a larger sum of people now were educated on the corruptions within their government. This caused a questioning of traditional practices, and people began to believe they could revise their government.

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The Enlightenment was a very transforming period of time during the seventeenth and eighteenth century in Europe. Following the successes of the Scientific Revolution, the continent, as a whole, experienced stimulation in new ideas, technology, and methods, inspiring many to think more logically and challenge the intellectual abilities of man. The Enlightenment was a very liberal time, focusing on logic, reason, and individualism in order to oppose intolerances and abuses in both the Church and states of Europe. New convictions spread about economic and social reform and grew over time. Traditional ideas from the Catholic Church were untrusted, as people began to disprove them through science.

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Golden blonde hair falls on the cheeks of a pure face. A woman so accustomed to money and privilege, yet a hole in her heart prevents her from happiness. Meanwhile, sweat of poverty covers the skin of one who only has eyes for a man already wed to another. Betwixt them all is a dark haired, athletic woman who cares only for her own well-being. All three of these beauties walk down paths as different as lead is from gold, yet their similarities are uncanny.

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