Self-Reliance in The Coquette Hannah W. Foster's The Coquette, written in 1797, takes place in a time period and social arena where a woman's primary role consisted of finding a suitable husband and becoming contently married. Forced into a narrow confine of her role from her early childhood, a girl became caught in a world where she lacked any true power. Controlled by her society, it was difficult for a female to find her own voice …showed first 75 words of 1527 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1527 total…lead fruitful lives. Emerson would not be at all surprised about this because he ! believes that "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members (25)." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Works Cited Davidson, Cathy. Introduction. The Coquette. By Hannah W. Foster. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” Essays And Poems. Ed.Christopher Bigsby, et al. Rutland, Vermont: Orion Publishing Group, 1995. Foster, Hannah W. The Coquette. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.