Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lady Susan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender, Power, and Manipulation
Public Appearance vs. Private Reality
Love and Transaction
Summary
Analysis
An unnamed narrator says that the letters couldn’t continue; no one could benefit from reading the correspondence between the Vernons and De Courcys, because Catherine soon realized that Frederica’s letters were being monitored by Lady Susan. Instead of writing, Catherine decided to visit Frederica after hearing everything about Lady Susan’s affair from Reginald. Catherine managed to convince the easygoing Charles to take them to London, where they saw Lady Susan; Catherine was disgusted by her good cheer and lack of guilt. Frederica remained unchanged, and her meekness convinced Catherine she needed to get her away from her mother.
Over the course of the novella, letters have been outlets for truth. There were a few exceptions—Lady Susan’s letters to Charles and Reginald, for instance—but for the most part, characters were able to say things in writing that they couldn’t or wouldn’t say out loud. Often, this only made it easier for Lady Susan to spread lies. But in this case, Lady Susan prevents Frederica from telling the truth at all, meaning that Frederica’s letters have no value anymore—they would just be spaces for Lady Susan to lie through her daughter. Instead, Austen’s narrator takes over, since letters can no longer reveal useful truths. Lady Susan, meanwhile, is still lying to people in person, acting like everything is fine—even though, by this point, Catherine knows that Lady Susan in the middle of a breakup with Reginald and that she likely still wants to force Frederica to marry Sir James. Frederica’s obvious weakness is what convinces Catherine that she needs to take action. When Frederica wrote to Reginald about her engagement, her powerlessness made him feel powerful—and it seems that the same thing is happening again, except that Catherine has no real power to speak of.
Themes
Literary Devices
Lady Susan never mentioned Sir James except to say that he was no longer in London; instead, she went on and on about Frederica’s newfound accomplishments. Catherine worried that this would make it harder to get Frederica away, but Lady Susan instead wondered whether Frederica might be happier in the country. After at first declining Catherine’s invitation to return Frederica to Churchill, she eventually relented after an influenza outbreak in London—she worried about Frederica’s health.
Lady Susan’s behavior is suspicious; it’s unlikely that Frederica could have become so accomplished in such a short amount of time. It’s also strange that Frederica isn’t yet married to Sir James—Lady Susan only wanted Frederica’s education to continue until she got married. And Lady Susan has certainly never cared about Frederica’s happiness before, nor about her health. It’s also not like Lady Susan to relent to Catherine without wanting something in return.
Themes
Three weeks after the Vernons returned to Churchill with Frederica, Lady Susan announced that she had married Sir James. Catherine realized that Lady Susan had wanted Frederica gone all along, and she hadn’t really needed to convince her. Frederica remained with the Vernons—though Lady Susan invited her back to London in a few letters—and eventually lost touch with her mother. She’d stay with the Vernons until Reginald could be “talked, flattered, and finessed” into loving her, which would probably take a year, given his current heartbreak over Lady Susan and distrust of women. Ordinarily, it might only take three months, but Reginald’s feelings were strong.
Now, Lady Susan’s behavior makes sense: she always intended to leave Frederica with the Vernons, but she wanted them to think it was their idea. This is a tactic she’s used before—for instance, when she dropped Frederica off at boarding school—and one which makes her appear more in control than she really is. After all, she certainly doesn’t seem to have been in control of Frederica; it remains unclear why Frederica wasn’t forced to marry Sir James, and why Lady Susan went through with it instead. It’s possible that Frederica outright refused and was able to convince her mother to relent. It does seem likely that something went wrong; if Lady Susan was pleased with the circumstances, she wouldn’t have manipulated Catherine into begging for Frederica to stay. Perhaps Lady Susan realized that Alicia was right: Frederica wouldn’t represent her well in society, which explains why she stopped writing. This passage, to some degree, gives Frederica a happy ending: she’ll eventually marry Reginald, a man she loves. But Austen also reminds readers that this marriage won’t be a love match. Reginald’s family will have to coerce him into marrying Frederica, which will be more difficult than Lady De Courcy expected, since Reginald apparently did love Lady Susan—it takes him a whole year to get over her. The De Courcys don’t have the best interests of both parties at heart—Reginald will always be comparing Frederica to Lady Susan, and Frederica will always remember Lady Susan’s influence on Reginald. In this way, Lady Susan maintains some level of power over the situation.
Themes
The narrator doesn’t know whether Lady Susan was happy with her “second choice” of Sir James—and no one will ever know, since they can’t trust anything she says. But the only negative circumstances in Lady Susan’s life were her husband and her “conscience,” which might one day work against her. In fact, Sir James is probably the real loser, since he was just a foolish pawn—the reader should pity him instead. The narrator, meanwhile, can only pity Miss Manwaring, who came all the way to London only to lose Sir James to a much older woman.
On the surface, Lady Susan has been punished for her lying and scheming. She lost her best friend and her fiancé, lost control of her daughter, and is now married to a foolish man. However, Austen seems to suggest that Lady Susan’s circumstances aren’t all bad—her husband is rich and easily manipulated, after all. And Lady Susan never had much of a “conscience” to speak of, so it’s unlikely that she’ll feel any pangs of guilt. She can still control Sir James’s money, and her schemes won’t be hindered by financial concerns; she could even, hypothetically, maintain her affair with Mr. Manwaring, newly separated from his wife. Lady Susan gets off lightly for her lies and manipulation in the end, which leaves readers to wonder whether Austen really condemns her actions. Lady Susan is, after all, a product of her society: her boredom causes her cruelty, and the societal limitations placed on women make that cruelty possible. Lady Susan’s prescribed role in polite society is what allows her to lie.
Themes
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