“It is throwing time away to be mistress of French, Italian, and German: music, singing, and drawing, &c., will gain a woman some applause, but will not add one lover to her list—grace and manner, after all, are of the greatest importance” (VII).
Lady Susan describes the qualities that she deems necessary for her daughter to have to be a proper wife. Instead of having intellectual qualities and solid education, Lady Susan wants her daughter to have grace and manner, neither of which are wrong to possess, but neither are necessary qualities for a woman to have to be a wife. Austen uses Lady Susan’s unnecessary request to characterize her as a woman with expectations that are not favorable. Austen also uses it to build on the theme of selfishness in the novel.
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