A woman’s role in Early-American society appears to have been set in stone. They were to be virtuous ladies who did not do much beyond being virtuous ladies. Susanna Rowson’s novel, Charlotte Temple, comments on the importance of virtue in Early-American society, but she also comments on how the abandonment of virtue can lead to destruction. The preface states that women “are thrown on an unfeeling world without the least power to defend themselves against the snares of not only the other sex, but from the more dangerous arts of the profligate of their own” (p. 5). A woman’s virtue is the power that will allow her to defend herself against the snares of the world. The abandonment or loss of virtue is the first stepping stone on the path to destruction. Charlotte was on the virtuous path before she met a man who caused her to abandon her virtue. This first stepping stone on her path to destruction began after her first meeting with Montraville in the field. He gave Charlotte a letter during their meeting, and at first, she knew better than to open it without allowing her mother to read it first. La Rue, the French…show more content… Her first introduction in America labeled her only as Montraville’s mistress. Being without virtue was tough on Charlotte. She was “without society” and “no woman of character [would] appear in [her] company” (p. 50). Rowson broke the fourth wall to comment on how society expects benevolence from God, but it will not show compassion to “an unfortunate female, who has once strayed into the thorny paths of vice” (p. 52). Montraville contributed greatly to Charlotte’s fallen woman status. He was well aware that Charlotte was not the kind of woman his father would approve of, no matter how charming Montraville himself found her to be. Montraville ruined Charlotte by making her his mistress instead of ignoring the disapproval of his father and marrying
