Marquise de Merteuil

As the primary female character in the novel, the Marquise de Merteuil is a powerful, strong minded, cruel, and merciless woman who spends her life attempting to cause the downfall of other men and woman. Thrown into society at a young age, Merteuil picks up on the idea that woman are expected to be pure and wholesome, and thereby sets upon a course of life to overcome such ideas, and to show the world that woman can be as merciless as men. Married early, she spends much of her married life having illicit affairs. When her husband dies, Merteuil elects not to remarry, but instead sets off on a life full of pleasure without emotion.

When a chance for revenge against a man who wronged her arrives, Merteuil wastes no time in planning to corrupt his young and beautiful bride to be. She elicits the help...