ipl-logo

The Coquette The History Of Eliza Garnette Sparknotes

790 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Kant and enlightenment

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

Show More
Related

Era Of Enlightenment Dbq Essay

588 Words | 3 Pages

The Era of Enlightenment was a cultural movement in Europe that favored reason in place of belief. It challenged the accepted views of the time which, in turn, endangered the power of absolute rulers and their system of government. This era influenced a majority of the European population, however, the monarchs of the time did not exemplify those same ideals. Catherine II of Russia’s views on serfs and peasants are a great example of a ruler defying the enlightenment movement. In her “Decree on Serfs” she states that “serfs and peasants...owe their landlords proper submission and absolute obedience in all matters” , essentially saying that serfs of the time should be completely obedient to their masters (Doc. 6).

Read More

The Enlightenment Dbq Essay

1016 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

Strict Barriers In Puritan New England

414 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More

Enlightenment Ideas In Tartuffe

519 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Morality In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

642 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Examples Of Feminism In The Great Gatsby

1009 Words | 5 Pages

Reader’s perception is one of the most essential aspects of a novel, this refers to what the audience brings to the novel and determines whether a book is transcendent. The perception can be affected by several factors such as the format, the language and the message of the novel in general. A book can be interpreted differently according to culture, ideology, and even gender. The novel, The Great Gatsby written and published by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, is faced with reader-response criticism by two different social groups; feminist, that want to achieve equal cultural and social representation for women, question the treatment the women in book receive by the men, yet view the novel as an example of the empowerment of females in during the 1920’s. Then Marxists, who analyse class relations, social conflict and social transformation, interpret the book by analysing the representation of a materialistic elite class and the struggle of the middle class to fit into their world.

Read More

The Enlightenment: The French Revolution

135 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

The Enlightenment Dbq Essay

1076 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

The Enlightenment Period

1326 Words | 6 Pages

The Enlightenment Period was the reformation of society, politics, and the economy. The Enlightenment Period was occurring throughout Europe during the 18th century. Traditional views were challenged by science and reasoning. Philosophers who had a great impact during the Enlightenment period included: John Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith. John Locke proposed that everyone was born free and had certain unalienable rights.

Read More

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Portrayal Of Victorian Women

774 Words | 4 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” critiques Victorian womanhood in several ways throughout the text. Victorian women were expected to be pure, dainty, and perfectly angelic. They were also expected to be perfect mothers, wives, and hostesses at all times. If a woman were to express too much emotion, she would be called hysterical. Hysteria was considered a medical condition which rendered a woman incapable of reason or generally thinking like an adult.

Read More

Social Conflict In Louisa May Alcott's An Old Fashioned Girl

964 Words | 4 Pages

In Louisa May Alcotts novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” the main character, Polly Milton, finds herself struggling against a man versus society conflict, as she confronts the rich first class society that surrounds her. The fourteen year old country girl who ventures into the city to visit her good friend, is constantly being told she is old fashioned, poor, and too simple for the city. The basis of the conflict is that all the people Polly encounters during her time in the city, expect her to look and behave like the rest. When Polly cannot do this, people begin to tease and mock her all because she has no wealth.

Read More

The Role Of Women In The Great Gatsby

1316 Words | 6 Pages

In this the year, which marks, the centenary in which, women won the right to vote; this essay will be to ‘Discuss the presentation of the women in ‘The great Gatsby’. One cannot understand the writing of ‘The great Gatsby’ without considering the era in which it took place. The role of women first started to change after the First World War in United States of America. Before this war, women did not enjoy universal suffrage. However, that was to change.

Read More

Men And Women In Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband

1285 Words | 6 Pages

The New Woman represented independent women who were generally unmarried and strove towards social and economic emancipation. They lay emphasis on criticising society’s assertion that marriage is the only end to which all women should strive to. Mrs Cheveley reflects the New Woman as she fearlessly enters London society unaccompanied and prepared to partake in politics, more particularly the blackmail of Sir Robert Chiltern. This kind of venture is singular for a woman at the time where their roles were relegated to catering to the needs of their husbands and their children, not rivalling men in the intellectual realm or threatening the stability of spousal love as Mrs Cheveley did. However despite the singularity of her courageous venture outside the delineated role of a women it is more stigmatised as opposed to the

Read More

Women's Power In The Great Gatsby

1399 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More

The Enlightenment Essay

969 Words | 4 Pages

The Enlightenment was a movement that shunned superstition and was more in favor with a scientific explanation of the world. The Enlightenment was also known as the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment. It started in Europe and America around the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment was about people who used their critical thinking skills to argue knowledge, education, politics, religion, and art. The enlightenment produced an increased number of inventions, books, scientific findings, political laws, and revolutions.

Read More

More about The Coquette The History Of Eliza Garnette Sparknotes

Related Topics

Open Document