Character Analysis
Poor Cécile is the collateral damage in Madame de Merteuil's war against Comte de Gercourt. Brought home from the convent school in preparation for her marriage to the Gercourt, Cécile has no idea that she's a pawn in the game of two of the worst human being imaginable. Even her teenage crush on the dashing Chevalier Danceny is carefully managed by Valmont and Merteuil to ruin Cécile and humiliate Gercourt.
Cecile's a wealthy girl, a naïve teenager who doesn't know anything about love or marriage. She confides in her best friend Sophie that she's excited about her newfound freedoms after leaving the convent.
Mamma has consulted me in everything; she treats me much less like a schoolgirl than she used to. I have my own maid, a bedroom and closet to myself, and I am sitting as I write at the prettiest desk to which I have been given the key so that I can lock away whatever I wish. (1.1.1)
One thing her mother hasn't consulted her on is her engagement. Sophie guesses that she's been taken from the convent to be married, but she doesn't even know who she's marrying or when it will happen. Other people see Sophie as pretty, but awkward and immature. This is why Madame de Merteuil thinks she'll be a perfect target for Valmont:
She is really pretty; only fifteen years of age, a rose-bud. Gauche, of course, to a degree, and quite without style, but you men are not discouraged by that. (1.2.3)
A rose-bud. Ready to be plucked.
While Madame de Merteuil is using her powers of persuasion to talk Valmont into accepting the challenge, Cécile's developing a crush on her music teacher, the Chevalier Danceny. She breathlessly writes to her bestie:
Oh, Sophie! News at last! I should not perhaps tell it to you, but I must positively tell somebody. I cannot help it. The Chevalier Danceny…I am in such a state that I cannot write: I don't know where to begin. […] I took out my harp; between the strings was a letter, folded but unsealed—from him. Since reading this letter I have been so happy that I have been unable to think of anything else. I re-read it four times in succession. […] I took it into my bed, and then I kissed it as if…It was perhaps wrong to kiss a letter like that, but I cannot help it. (1.16.1)
We're guessing she took out a notebook from her new desk and wrote "Mme. Sophie Danceny" a hundred times.
Danceny turns out to be a mopey lover, who blames Cécile for his suffering; he accuses her of refusing to write or see him. She's not sure how to respond, especially since the Marquise is pulling the strings.
Cécile finally learns from Madame de Merteuil that it's Gercourt she's going to marry. She's horrified by the Marquise's (totally objective and sincere, of course) description of him: he's old, grumpy, and strict. She says that she'll always love Danceny and her future husband will just have to learn to deal with it.
Valmont's reluctant to seduce Sophie because it's just too easy, but once he hears that her mother has been talking trash about him around town, he changes his mind. She's defenseless against a man like him. Under the guise of helping her secretly pass letters to Danceny, he gets a key to her bedroom and rapes her. At first she's emotionally crushed; she confides in the Marquise, hoping for sympathy:
Oh God, Madame, how heavy-hearted, how miserable I am! […] How shall I tell you? How shall is say it?...I don't know what to do. […] I must speak to someone, and in you alone can I, dare I confide.
I feel my cheeks on fire…Oh, it is the very blush of shame.
[Valmont] wanted a second kiss […] Oh, really, it was too wicked. Then after that…you will spare my telling the rest, but I am as unhappy as anyone could possibly be. (3.97.1-4)
Poor Cécile, unknowingly confiding and trust in in the person who arranged the assault in the first place. The Marquise was counting on exactly this cluelessness. Anyway, she convinces Cécile to see the loss of her virginity and new experience as an opportunity for pleasure and social advancement. Sadly, Cécile takes her advice and goes along with the plan, doing everything Valmont suggests and becoming quite the experienced lover.
These "advantages" go nowhere. Cécile becomes pregnant and eventually suffers a miscarriage. Valmont has the "evidence" removed. All the while, the Marquise and Valmont keep conspiring to muddle Cécile's relationship with Danceny. After Danceny kills Valmont, Cécile returns to the convent to become nun, much to her mother's distress.