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Letters 1–10
Themes
and Colors
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
Letter XI. Catherine writes to her mother, concerned about Reginald’s fast friendship with Lady Susan. She still doesn’t think that Lady Susan plans to marry Reginald, but it’s alarming to watch their flirtation. Catherine wonders whether her mother can trick Reginald into coming home on some pretense—for her part, Catherine has tried to hint that their father, Sir Reginald, is sick, but this doesn’t seem to have worked. Reginald is so infatuated with Lady Susan that he now defends her bad behavior, claiming that the rumors about her affair with Mr. Manwaring and flirtation with Sir James are lies.
Again, it’s worth questioning whether Catherine really believes that Lady Susan won’t marry Reginald—she’s obviously more worried than she lets on, since she wants her mother to force Reginald to come home. However, she apparently can’t just tell Reginald that Lady Susan is bad news. Because society demands that women be polite and agreeable, Catherine and Lady De Courcy are forced to circle around the actual issue. It’s true that Sir Reginald is ill, but that has nothing to do with why Catherine wants Reginald gone—and if their mother wrote to him, she would need to invent a similarly fake reason. If Catherine told Reginald what she really thought of Lady Susan, she might be able to convince him—his current attitude toward Lady Susan is obviously delusional, especially because he believed all the rumors about her only recently. But Catherine can’t say anything directly, so Reginald left vulnerable to more manipulation.
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Letter XII. Catherine and Reginald’s father, Sir Reginald, writes to his son, reminding him of his duty to his family. In marriage, everything is at stake for Reginald: his happiness, his parents’ happiness, and the family’s good name. He hopes that Reginald wouldn’t propose to someone his parents didn’t approve of, but he’s grown concerned after hearing about Reginald’s friendship with Lady Susan.
While Catherine and her mother can’t discuss their fears about Lady Susan openly with Reginald—it’s not their place as women—Sir Reginald can. However, Sir Reginald’s fears seem to have more to do with the De Courcy family than with Reginald himself. Clearly, the De Courcys view marriage and love the same way Lady Susan does—as a transaction that needs to tangibly benefit Reginald and the De Courcy family. Even their familial love seems transactional, since Reginald’s duty is to do right by his family rather than to do right by himself.
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Lady Susan’s age alone would make the match inappropriate (she’s 12 years older than Reginald), but the reasons behind her bad reputation bear repeating. Sir Reginald reminds his son that Lady Susan neglected her late husband, flirted with other men, and spent extravagantly during her marriage. Charles presents her in a better light than she deserves—she did try to break up his engagement to Catherine, after all.
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Sir Reginald is against the match with Lady Susan—it’s possible she’s even toying with Reginald out of vanity or attempting to change his especially bad opinion of her. But since she’s poor, it’s likelier that she wants to marry Reginald for money. Sir Reginald can’t stop his son from marrying Lady Susan or inheriting Sir Reginald’s wealth, but he would be ashamed of Reginald. He believes all the rumors about Lady Susan, and he knows that not long ago, Reginald did too. He wants Reginald to assure him that he won’t get engaged to Lady Susan, or at least explain why he’s changed his mind about her.
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Letter XIII. Lady DeCourcy tells Catherine that she was sick when Catherine sent her last letter, so Sir Reginald read it to her and inadvertently learned about Reginald’s relationship with Lady Susan. She was going to write to Reginald herself, because the news would have upset Sir Reginald, but it’s too late—he sent a long letter to Reginald about his disapproval. Reginald replied, and Lady De Courcy now encloses his letter. Reginald’s reassurances that he wouldn’t marry Lady Susan calmed Sir Reginald, but Lady De Courcy remains unconvinced.
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Letter XIV. Reginald replies to Sir Reginald, shocked by his long missive. He assumes that Sir Reginald got this information from Catherine, and he scolds her for worrying the family without any reason. It’s an insult to Lady Susan to assume that she’s out for marriage, and he knows that their age gap prevents it; he’s just having fun talking with an intelligent woman. He thinks that Catherine is biased against Lady Susan because Lady Susan tried to prevent her marriage.
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However, Reginald now understands that Lady Susan acted out of love for Charles: she heard a nasty rumor about Catherine, so she was looking out for his best interests. If someone as blameless as Catherine can be slandered in such a way, anyone can be—including and especially Lady Susan, who is out in society much more often.
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Reginald blames himself for believing the rumors about Lady Susan’s conduct at the Manwarings’. Mrs. Manwaring was jealous and invented the affair, and Mr. Manwaring’s sister, Miss Manwaring, was on the hunt for a husband. She landed on Sir James before he fell for Lady Susan, which is hardly Lady Susan’s fault. In fact, Lady Susan decided to leave the family so as not to disrupt their engagement. She was never an extravagant spender and is a great mother; Reginald only hopes that Frederica is worthy of her. Reginald admires Lady Susan, and he believes that Sir Reginald’s fears about marriage are misplaced.
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Letter XV. Catherine tells her mother that she’s glad Reginald’s letter reassured Sir Reginald, but reading it only convinced her that Reginald doesn’t plan to propose to Lady Susan now—not that he won’t in the future. All of his impressions of her character come from Lady Susan herself. But Catherine does hope that she hasn’t judged Lady Susan too harshly—Lady Susan is genuinely upset right now, as Frederica has run away from boarding school. Catherine attributes this to Frederica’s “perverse” nature, which Lady Susan is always talking about. Charles has gone off to London to persuade the boarding school to keep Frederica, but if that doesn’t work, she’ll come to Churchill.
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Catherine believes that Lady Susan is actually a little too upset about the situation, but she’s nervous that she’s misjudging her—Charles believes Lady Susan’s distress is genuine. Lady Susan begged Catherine to be harsh on Frederica if she does come to Churchill, as Lady Susan is too often soft with her, and Catherine finds this believable. Reginald, meanwhile, is ridiculously upset at Frederica on Lady Susan’s behalf, which Catherine believes is Lady Susan’s doing.
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Letter XVI. Lady Susan writes to Alicia, vexed at Frederica—after her daughter heard that Sir James would propose again, she probably went to elope with a family friend. However, Lady Susan still plans to force the marriage with Sir James. She hopes Frederica doesn’t come to Churchill and that they can find another school for her—in the meantime, Lady Susan will spread lies about the situation. Luckily, she’s a great liar, since most of her time is spent in conversation with others. Meanwhile, she’s grown weary with Reginald, since he always wants the absolute truth; Lady Susan prefers Mr. Manwaring, who always believed her without question. In fact, he wants to visit Churchill, which Lady Susan forbade.
Letter XVII. Catherine writes to her mother, saying that Charles has returned with Frederica; her boarding school wouldn’t allow her to stay. While Lady Susan was upset before, she greeted Frederica coldly and then led her out of the room. When Lady Susan came back without her daughter, she seemed upset again—this distressed Reginald, but it convinced Catherine that Lady Susan doesn’t really care about Frederica.
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Literary Devices
While Catherine previously believed that Frederica was a wayward child, she appears merely shy and afraid of her mother. She’s pretty, but she pales in comparison to Lady Susan, and Catherine believes that Lady Susan has shut down most communication between herself and Frederica. It’s clear that Frederica hasn’t had much of an education, but Reginald still believes that Lady Susan is a great mother. He thinks that Frederica ran away for no reason, and he won’t even admit that she’s pretty. Unfortunately, he seems to be parroting Lady Susan.
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Letter XVII. Catherine writes again to her mother, glad that she was interested to hear more about Frederica. Catherine thinks that Frederica has become enamored with Reginald, both because he’s handsome and because he has an “open” character. Catherine wants to let Reginald know about this crush, since he might be grateful for it; if so, Frederica might be a means of breaking up him and Lady Susan. Catherine’s mother would probably like Frederica; she’s young and uneducated, but she’s kind and fond of reading. Catherine has gained her trust, and through their conversations, she has come to believe that if Lady Susan treated her daughter kindly, Frederica might make a better impression on others.
Letter XIX. Lady Susan writes to Alicia that Frederica did, in fact, run away because of the hint that Sir James would propose. She sarcastically commends Frederica’s blatant misbehavior, but she’s upset that her daughter now has to stay at Churchill. Frederica seems to have a crush on Reginald, which also annoys Lady Susan; the girl is disobeying her mother, both by refusing Sir James and by falling for someone new. Luckily, Reginald doesn’t even notice it, because Frederica is totally artless in her interactions with him—while the Vernons think she’s beautiful, Reginald isn’t affected.
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Catherine is the only one who openly cares about Frederica, which makes sense to Lady Susan: Catherine loves to be strict and witty, and Frederica can never compete with her. Initially, Lady Susan didn’t want them interacting, but she now believes that Frederica won’t reveal anything to Catherine. Despite the change of plans, Lady Susan is more determined than ever to force her daughter to marry Sir James—she’s just waiting to figure out how, since she won’t bring him to Churchill, and she can’t go to London at the moment.
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Letter XX. Catherine writes to her mother, saying that Sir James has come to Churchill. When he arrived, Frederica at first ran to Catherine in a panic. Then Reginald summoned her, seeming surprised by her distress. Catherine now realizes that Lady Susan’s flirtation with Sir James must have been on Frederica’s behalf, though Frederica clearly dislikes him. Lady Susan was polite, but it was obvious that she didn’t want Sir James at Churchill, either; he kept mentioning that he’d seen Mrs. Johnson, and he addressed Lady Susan more often than her daughter.
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Lady Susan then followed Catherine into her dressing room to speak to her privately. She claimed to have been surprised by Sir James’s visit, but she insisted that he came out of desperate love for Frederica. Now that Frederica has set her mind against boarding school, Lady Susan believes that the wedding will likely happen soon—and she expressed her hope that Catherine and Charles would approve of the match. Appealing to Catherine’s maternal side, Lady Susan said that someday it’ll be her own daughter getting engaged. Catherine congratulated Lady Susan, who responded by declaring that she’s come to love Catherine for her kindness to Frederica and apologizing that someone prejudged her against Catherine years ago. Catherine notes how earnest Lady Susan sounded, but she tells her mother that she distrusts everything Lady Susan says.
Reginald, meanwhile, was astonished by Sir James’s visit, as Sir James was so stupid, and Frederica was so upset. Lady Susan privately calmed Reginald down, but Catherine assumes that he’s still baffled by the engagement, which reflects poorly on Lady Susan as a mother. Sir James invited himself to stay at Churchill, since he’ll soon marry into the family—Catherine hopes that something can be done to prevent the wedding, since a girl with good enough taste to love Reginald shouldn’t marry a man like Sir James.
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