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Letter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Coquette, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Women and Society
Sex and Virtue
Marriage and Social Mobility
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Eliza writes to Mrs. Richman from her mother, Mrs. Wharton’s, home in Hartford and tells her how happy she is to be with her family again. Major Sanford has recently moved to town as well, and while he has been exceedingly pleasant to Eliza, his respect of Mr. Boyer is a “result of habit.” Eliza plans to go to visit Lucy Freeman in the following days to help her prepare for her upcoming wedding. “I am anxious to hear of a wished for event and of your safety,” Eliza writes to Mrs. Richman in closing.
Here, Eliza implies that Mrs. Richman is expecting a child, which was never openly discussed in polite society during the eighteenth-century, and this is another reflection of their strict, patriarchal society. As pregnancy cannot occur without sex, it is considered inappropriate to mention, so Eliza politely, and discreetly, references “a wished for event,” or the birth of a child, instead.
Themes
