In her only comedy, A Wife to Be Lett (1723), Eliza Haywood lionizes a virtuous wife, centring the play on an upstanding woman who evades her husband's attempt to rent her out to another man. A role originally acted by Haywood herself, Mrs Graspall is celebrated throughout; indeed, this character's reputation literally precedes her – before Mrs. Graspall enters the stage, Gaylove, a new arrival in town, declares that he has heard that she ‘bears the Bell from all the rest’. Mrs Graspall's greedy husband, on the other hand, serves as the play's antagonist: from the trustworthy Courtly's early description of him as ‘the most covetous miserable Wretch that ever was’ to his eventual proposal that his wife sleep with another man, Mr Graspall is avaricious and unfeeling, his cold-hearted miserliness set in contrast to his wife's generosity. Despite A Wife to Be Lett's negative characterization of Mr Graspall, the play does not conclude with his wife rejecting his authority. Late in the text, Mrs Graspall does expose her husband's attempt at pandering, but she does not ultimately gain the upper hand in their marriage. On the contrary, Mrs Graspall ends the play by reasserting her husband's power over her, telling him that ‘I … shall ever make it my Study to prove a most obedient Wife’.

Previous critics of A Wife to Be Lett have read this play as an outgrowth of Haywood's proto-feminism, understanding it as a critique of the patriarchal structure of marriage.