Jane Austen's novel Lady Susan is one of her most decadent Victorian novels that challenges traditional morality through its protagonist Lady Susan herself. As the epistolary novel progresses, the written exchanges between the characters demonstrate indignation at Lady Susan's opposition: her flirtation, extramarital affair, machinations, lies, hypocrisy and decisive slanders upset the family with which lives. Over the course of the book, Lady Susan goes mad as her plots thicken and seem to come to a definitive conclusion. Luckily, at the end, the moral voice of the omniscient author intervenes, doing justice to each of the characters. Austen uses Mrs. Vernon's voice as the voice of reason and morality to condemn Lady Susan's behavior and to reason with those who are blinded by her manipulations. Mrs. Vernon raises her voice as the voice of reason in the novel where she refuses to justify or tone down Lady Susan's excesses. With her feminine intuition she manages to reveal Lady Susan's true character even if many of the characters have their eyes closed to it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “So Lady Susan is the temptress who manipulates men and uses personal charm” (Byrne). As a consummate temptress, Lady Susan lures willing men into her trap. She uses her feminine wiles, subtlety and manipulative skill to snare men in her trap. Early in the novel, Reginald De Courcy learns that Lady Susan is “England's most accomplished coquette” and “a most distinguished flirt” (Austen 4). Lady Susan possesses an ambiguous character that her attractive appearance and pleasant manners attract and enchant. Austen describes her as "exceedingly pretty...delicately fair, with beautiful gray eyes and dark eyelashes,...possessing an unusual union of symmetry, brilliance, and grace...her address was kind, frank, and even affectionate" ( Austen 7). Here Austen has prepared the physical and social environment for a deception because here is a woman who boasts unparalleled beauty but who turns out to be hiding a black heart. This description comes from the pen of Mrs. Vernon who is the first to smell the danger when Lady Susan introduces herself to her brother Reginald De Courcy. Knowing well the tricks of the flirtatious trade, she tries to remove the blindfold from Reginald's eyes. Ironically, Reginald is still trapped by Lady Susan. The Greek myth of the Gorgon/Medusa fits the depiction of Lady Susan. According to the tale, in her happy days, Medusa represented the example of beauty among her sisters, however, a curse turns her hair into snakes and her body grows like a scaly snake. Since then, the contemplation of Medusa causes the petrification of the observer, who literally turns into stone and dies. In the novel, Lady Susan personifies a gorgonian Medusa who enchants men; and as they look at her, they remain fascinated and unable to resist her beauty and seduction. Sir Reginald De Courcy Sr., aware of Lady Susan's Medusa-like qualities, warns his son, Mr. Reginald De Courcy Jr. of his liking for her. Suspecting that he has been deceived, Sir De Courcy Sr. warns his son to consider Lady Susan's feminine splendor "without being blind to her faults" (Austen 9). Here we observe the juxtaposition of sight and blindness; beauty and temptation. Two icons that Lady Susan embodies are Eve and Pandora, who pose as temptresses. Both throw the world into confusion because of their desire to gratify their immediate pleasant desires and that, at theIn the end, they pay a high price for their corrupt inclinations. Eve is responsible for tasting the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and then convinces her husband, Adam, to eat the fruit. As the Holy Text says, both ultimately die as punishment for their transgression; However in this story, an evil serpent is responsible for indulging proscribed desires. To some extent, this story parallels Medusa in its serpentine presence, sexual seduction, and impending death. Pandora also serves to seduce Epimetheus, her husband, and tricks him into opening the box that releases a host of evil into the world (Tyree). Pandora, like Eve, was the quintessence of female beauty that captures the eye and the heart. The pursuit of pleasure is Lady Susan's only joy and reason for being. A skilled puppeteer, she can control scenes, dominate conversations, and manipulate the minds of those in her social circle. The reader is introduced to the hedonistic and voluptuous Lady Susan from the first words written in her letter to her brother Mr. Vernon: I can no longer deny myself the pleasure of profiting from your kind invitation. However, Lady Susan misses the pain that her pleasure costs others. Lady Susan reports to Mrs. Johnson “the exquisite pleasure in subduing an insolent spirit…to acknowledge her own superiority” (Austen 7). She pursues men who despise her for the sheer rush of the chase and the gratification of her own vanity. She seduces married and bachelor men, without ever making moral compromises. Mr. Reginald De Courcy hears rumors of Lady Susan's dangerous and unwarranted flirtation in which she "aspires to more delicious gratification" (Austen 4) than the average individual. What is of primary importance to her is her pleasure. She doesn't even use her motherly heart to love and cherish her daughter Frederica. The first piece of information about his scandalous pursuit of pleasure is news of an extramarital affair that resulted in social embarrassment and a destroyed home. This reference points to Mr Mainwaring and his dual relationship with his wife, Mrs Mainwaring, and his amorous attentions towards Lady Susan, who throws herself upon him in her pretentious grief after her husband's death. Throughout the novel, Lady Susan corresponds with three men: Mr. Mainwaring, Sir James Martin and Mr. Reginald De Courcy until the latter is disillusioned from his delusion. To his son, Mr. Reginald De Courcy Jr., Sir Reginald De Courcy Sr. lays bare Lady Susan's debauchery, frivolity and adultery: "Her neglect of her husband, her encouragement of other men, his extravagance and dissipation, were so crass and infamous” (Austen 11). The theme of marriage of convenience runs throughout the novel where the female characters decide to make a conquest to avail themselves of the fortunes of a wealthy man Although the Victorian period requires a woman to marry, due to her lack of employment and inability to inherit, Lady Susan goes further by calculating to secure rich estates Sir James Martin and Mr. Reginald De Courcy become Lady Susan's preys who aims to live a life of frivolity, ease, and wealth. At the end of the novel, Lady Susan employs her intrigues to bring Frederica to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon as she marries the wealthy Sir Martin. Lady Susan and Frederica argue bitterly over the question of marriage since Lady Susan tries to force an unwanted union between his daughter and Sir Martin. In this situation, his only interest lies in the property and the financial benefits he hopes to obtain. One literary critic observes that “in ending thus – with a sudden and false turn towards omniscience and moral authority – Lady Susan effectively exposes her ending as one>