- Response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Nov. 1789)
- Published in December, 1789
- "Men" : a number of classes; all human beings
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Published in 1792
- "Woman" : suggests a class of persons who have treated the same?
- Society systematically, through education, trains woman to be not virtuous (immoral), not rational, not masculine
- Wollstonecraft is an advocate of "meritocracy"
- Hierarchy is injurious to morality
- Soldiers --> women
"The great misfortune is this, that they both acquire manners befor emorals, and a knowledge of life before they have, from refelction, any acquaintance with the grand ideal outline of human nature. The consequence is natural; satisfied with common nature, they become a prey to prejudices, and taking all their opinions on credit, they blindly submit to authority" (Chapter 2, Paragraph 20).
- Feminine wiles?
"Women, deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by play on the weakness of men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway...but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour" (Chapter 3, Paragraph 7).
Mary Wollstonecraft's distinct aversion to the institution of marriage is, while strikingly unusual, in perfect harmony with the sentiments expressed by her feminist works. She recognizes how society in structured by and for men, and because of this, the marriage system cannot possibly be any different. It is at once heartbreaking and inspiring that Wollstonecraft lived by her own virtue, her own word.
No comments:
Post a Comment