Other critical studies of "The Coquette" include Dorothy Z. Baker's work, which argues that "Eliza's struggle to control her life begins with the struggle to control language, the language of society that dictates her identity and conscribes her life." Additionally, C. Leiren Mower makes the case that Eliza "reworks Lockean theories of labor and ownership as a means of authorizing proprietary control over her body's commerce in the social marketplace. Instead of accepting her social and legal status as another's personal property, Eliza publicly performs her dissent as visible evidence of the legitimacy of her proprietary claims."