Point of View

Lady Susan is told through the point of view of many characters through a series of letters. Most of the novel's letters are from Lady Susan and Mrs. Vernon, writing to a friend and family respectively. Lady Susan's main letters to Mrs. Johnson depict the main character as a Machiavellian figure whose true thoughts and feelings do not reflect her public actions. Lady Susan is a true sociopathic character who views others as objects and uses them as means to an end. Her point of view contrasted with Mrs. Vernon's shows how the dishonest are able to manipulate the social conventions of the world around them to achieve their own selfish ends.

By offering contrast in these points of views, Austen is able to offer a send-up of a repressive and fundamentally hypocritical society. Although Lady Susan is by far the most malicious and deceitful...