The Coquette’s Lesson: Haywood’s Betsy Thoughtless

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, courtship is seen as the only authorized cultural activity that gives women power in patriarchal society. Thus, the figure of the wealthy orphaned coquette allows authors to explore questions of authority, imprudent behaviour, the dangers to which the heroine is exposed and the true relations of power that obtain in the family and in patriarchy. The novels with which I am about to deal feature a rich young woman who has lost both parents before the age of majority. Betsy Thoughtless and Miss Milner are of good family and have a large enough fortune to think well of their place in society. But most importantly, they think highly of their personal charms and expect society to admire them. In the world of courtship this expectation may be reasonable, but in other social affairs the coquette must be given a rude awakening to the power that society has over them. The orphaned coquettes experience no parental pressure and, though they protest their obedience to their appointed guardians, in reality they rarely heed the latters’ advice or admonitions. Coquettes remain incorrigible until it is (almost) too late. The last sentence of A Simple Story spells out that society’s primary concern with coquettes is their defective education in feminine submission.