Who is Claire Bellegarde de Cintre from The American and what is their importance?

Twenty-eight-year-old, Claire de Bellegarde, is the daughter of the Marquis and Marquise. She is described as exquisite...... the perfect woman. She is cultivated, high-born, beautiful, and kind. A widow, Claire married at the age of eighteen, to a man chosen by her mother. In the end, Claire enters a convent.