The Coquette

Sanford is delighted to have removed Eliza from the scrutiny of her friends’ supervision. He is unable to comprehend her grief at leaving her mother’s house, but it affects him emotionally. He is “almost a penitent,” whether he “were sincere or not” (157). 

Eliza believes she will not survive childbirth, nor does she want to. Sanford worries he will lose his mind if he loses her. He hopes to eventually provoke his wife into divorce and marry Eliza, though he expresses his distaste for a wife he knows “to be seducible” (157). 

Nancy Sanford is very suspicious of her husband. He retorts that she knew his character before they were married and should not have expected anything else. 

Major Sanford feels sorry for Eliza and blames her faults on the faults of women as a whole. He also blames Eliza’s friends; if they had been less cold toward him, he would not have wished revenge upon them. Ruining Eliza has also ruined his reputation in town, and Sanford may have to leave. 

Eliza forgives Sanford and wishes for his honest “repentance and reformation” (159). She hopes that she is his last victim. Eliza hopes her story serves as an example for other women: she does not wish others to suffer her fate.