Mary Wollestonecraft Flashcards
What did she think of marriage
Saw it as slavery and had her first child out of wedlock
How did Horace Warpole describe Mary Wollestonecraft
He called her a “hyena in petticoats”- basically called her a whore
What did she announce at the age of 15
That she would never marry- later married William Godwin in 1797
What did she argue about reason
That women were capable of reason- all they lacked was education
What did she argue in Vindication of the rights of Woman
That if women were going to be good wives and mothers they needed to be intelligent, educated citizens
Example of an attempt to vilify Wollstonecraft
the Anti Jacobin review of 1798 went so far as to index her under P for prostitute
Why is she regarded as a formidable figure
Challenged the sexual and moral norms of her society in radical ways
Why did her career not develop around a single genre
produce very diverse writings from travel lit, political commentary to autobiographical writings
How is her lack of formal education reflected in her writing
often hasty and unpolished
What did she state about Mary: A Fiction
“a tale to illustrate an opinion of mine, that a genius will educate itself “
What role does Eliza play in Mary: A Fiction
Wollstonecraft’s typical romantic heroine, familiar to any reader of the periods of sentimental fiction
How does Wollstonecraft concluded Mary: a fiction
by looking forward to a better world in which a woman desire is not trammeled by the compulsory love plot. A world “ where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage”
How does the Wrongs of Woman open
in medias res
What is the reader able to understand by implication about Mary a fiction
It will not be the kind of novel that caters to the thwarted sexual desire of female readers such as the heroines mum Eliza
What does the quote “ woman fragile flower! why were you suffered to adorn a world exposed to the inroad of such stormy elements” show about women (WoW)
the lack of material ,legal and personal resources avaliable for women to withstand brutality
recalls Hamlet -frailty thy name is woman
What did Mary Poovey criticise Mary Wollstonecraft for
remaning “ a prisoner of the category she most vehemently tried to reject”
What happens in the wrongs of Woman of Woman
Concerns Maria’s struggle for freedom and her effort to separate legally from her vindictive husband George Venables
The novel also contains the details of other characters disastrous marriages in which women are abused, robbed, and abandoned
How does she present marriage in the Wrongs of Woman
Wollstonecraft describes marriage as a prison and women as slaves. “A wife being as much a man’s property as his horse, or his ass, she has nothing she can call her own.”
Wollstonecraft deconstructs the ideology of marriage, by which women are exchangeable commodities, are objectified, and are denied their natural rights.
Why did she think that women pursued sensibility
because they had been taught to do so.
female education emphasied the nurturing of emotion so that women would be distorted into sexual and passionate beings and grow subordinate to men
What is one way that the wrongs of women - announced in the tile are inflicted
through the physical and legal force exercised by men.
accepts marriage proposal to escape her fathers “absolute authority”
marital rape?
How was the Wrongs of Women intended to be received
as didatic
How is Maria clearly marked by her education in sensiblity in the Wrongs of Woman
Laments at the lack of imagination in her husband and blames his vicious conduct partly on this.
She sees generous emotions as ‘ the foundation of every true principle of virtue”
What does Wollstonecraft show in the contrast between Maria and Jemima
excessive sensiblity without reason makes people romantic and vulnerable
excessive reason without sensibility makes them coldly selfish
When did she become a truly scandalous figure
After her death in 1797 when her hubby william Godwin gave an unvarnished account of her life including details of her love affairs, suicide attempts and illegitimate pregnancies
