The Coquette

When Mr. Boyer writes to Mr. Selby of breaking off his relationship with Eliza, he says, “I would not be understood to impeach Miss Wharton’s virtue; I mean her chastity. Virtue in the common acceptation of the term, as applied to the sex, is confined to that particular, you know” (78). During the era in which Foster wrote The Coquette, honor, virtue, and chastity were intrinsically linked. Stemming from the puritanical forbidding of premarital and extramarital sexual intercourse, the value placed upon a woman’s virginity was of paramount importance in early America. Much of the danger faced by women in early American literature was the threat of losing their virginity before marriage. This extended beyond the danger of rape; the importance of chastity extended to platonic social conduct. Insinuation and innuendo could be enough to ruin the image of an otherwise virtuous woman. This led to an excessive policing of a woman’s public conduct. 

Virginity was therefore a powerful social currency that determined a woman’s value. Rumors of any illicit activity could be as damaging as actually losing one’s virtue. This becomes evident in the novel when rumors about Sanford and Eliza begin to circulate in the neighborhood.