In the epistolary form of “Lady Susan “, motives must be deciphered depending on the sender, recipient, and tone of the letter. In my decoding of Lady Susan’s motives, I found her unique from the generalized idea of women of her time as she seemed not to be seeking happiness in finding a husband for her and her daughter Frederica, but rather seeking satisfaction in success of accomplishing challenges of manipulation of others. Lady Susan alludes to this tendency in letter seven as she describes her decision to lessen the pride of the De Courcy’s in regards to their presupposed views of her by convincing Mrs. Vernon these views were misguided and manipulating Reginald to fall in love with her. Lady Susan’s schemes become most apparent in her letters to Mrs. Johnson as she confides the status of her plots and boasts of her talents to influence others. Being a widower and described struggling financially, Lady Susan is strangely quick to rise to a challenge such as setting up her unwilling daughter with a suitor or spending time with a married man to draw him from his wife at the expense of marriage and security for herself.
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