Cathy N. Davidson argues that "The Coquette" is not merely a novel about the evils of sin and seduction, but rather "a remarkably detailed assessment of the marital possibilities facing late-eighteenth-century women of the middle or upper-middle classes." Davidson notes the centrality of Foster's novel in "countering received ideas on women's circumscribed power and authority," positioning "The Coquette" as "an important voice in the debate on women's role in the Republic." In her exploration of the early American novel, Davidson uses the contradictions between Foster's novel and the moral accounts of Elizabeth Whitman's death to explore the emergence of the early American sentimental novel: