In The Coquette by Hannah W. Foster, General Sanford is introduced as a man passionately in love (or perhaps just lust) with Eliza Wharton. However, Eliza never has the opportunity to marry Sanford. Not only does he never ask, but he returns from abroad with a wife. The reader is then forced to question, why Sanford hesitates in making Eliza an offer of marriage, when their feelings of love for each other are so evidently mutual? Simple, Sanford feels that he is entitled to live a life of luxury, which he can not support of his own means and must therefore marry a women with financial backing.
Throughout the novel, the connection between Sanford and Eliza is clear. There is no question that she feels for him and although a reader could wonder if he feels the same, Foster is blunt in depicting that Sanford does love Eliza. Sanford writes “Love her, I certainly do! Would to heaven I could marry her” (72). Therefore, why does he not act on these feelings? Sanford begins to explain his circumstance to the reader in a letter to Mr. Charles Deighton. Here he states:

I shall manage matter very well, I have no doubt, and keep up the appearance of affluence, till I find some lady in a strait for a husband, whose fortune will enable me to extricate myself (65).

From this, the reader is able to gather that Sanford has no money and is simply keeping up the appearance of being affluent. Sanford feels that his only option for gaining the wealth needed to support his lifestyle would be to marry a lady.
Foster invites readers to understand and even sympathize with the situation Sanford has found himself in through use of Eliza. The reader is greatly attached to and connected with Eliza and her feelings; therefore, reader has no choice but to mutually like Sanford for his wit and cunning. Being that Eliza is only able to connect intimately with Sanford, allows the reader to feel sympathy for Sanford as an individual and identify him as a human being, capable of all such emotions.
Whether because of Eliza’s clear connection with Sanford or the illusion which Foster has created of love between the two, readers of The Coquette have no choice but feel sympathy for all players in the novel, regardless of their actions. Sanford’s decision to not marry Eliza may have ultimately led to the fall of both players, but was made with deep thought and consideration.