Literary Analysis
Mary Wollstonecraft
Week#2
Mary Wollstonecraft
Week#2
Out of all of the reading we were assigned this second week of school and first week of actually diving in to the books. There was one piece of text that stood out, that even had me bring the topic up in conversation outside of school. This particular text was when we were introduced to Mary Wollstonecraft. For one her last name is intriguing just from all of the word that put together one name. Which reminded me that she was born in a totally different time period and helped me adjust my mind to the late 1700's. Reading what she did showed me what strength she had to speak up for the rights of her own sex,while doing it in such of a compelling way. I appreciated how she first did The Vindication of the Rights Men speaking to all men no matter the race in 1791, and then turning around to do The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In doing this she fist challenged men with writing about their own rights and how they can be changed for the better. In her era this was unheard of a women contributing to the Enlightenment age. Mary made her ideas even more breaking news by, one year later speak up for the rights of women. This essay in 1792 was seen as radicalism for the ideas she introduced to explain how women are treated similar to slaves. And she had a huge point in her time women received no education and unequal rights trapped them into the same position as a slave. With their husbands as there masters and nothing they could do to further themselves individually.
It is even more profound to know that in her whole lifetime she was mocked for her views and her having a child out of wedlock was more focused on then her founding of feminism. Mary Wollstonecraft was such a fearless innovator and it's ashamed that she wasn't recognized till century's later in 1960. Mary was before her time and comments in her writing like "This is only keeping them in rank and file, it is true. Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be end to blind obedience; but, as blind obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavor to keep women in the dark, because the former only want slaves, and the latter a plaything"(pg.136). In this quote Mary was exposing how men in her day would keep women uneducated and obedient to them because they rather a slave then a person who might at times challenge them. Mary seen education as power to women and she understood that men believed if women had education they would no longer be their obedient wives and family members. She seen a future much brighter for women and she didn't have a problem expressing how she felt. In the text Mary's tone and characterization of herself is extremely intriguing. Reading this made you see Ms. Wollstonecraft as a unmovable force because she was mocked yet continued to stand by her writings and the tone in her comparisons of marriage to slavery, showed you she meant business. Although her community drowned out her views by making a scandal of her life she was still immovable and her essay's lived on past her time to be appreciated.
It is even more profound to know that in her whole lifetime she was mocked for her views and her having a child out of wedlock was more focused on then her founding of feminism. Mary Wollstonecraft was such a fearless innovator and it's ashamed that she wasn't recognized till century's later in 1960. Mary was before her time and comments in her writing like "This is only keeping them in rank and file, it is true. Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be end to blind obedience; but, as blind obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavor to keep women in the dark, because the former only want slaves, and the latter a plaything"(pg.136). In this quote Mary was exposing how men in her day would keep women uneducated and obedient to them because they rather a slave then a person who might at times challenge them. Mary seen education as power to women and she understood that men believed if women had education they would no longer be their obedient wives and family members. She seen a future much brighter for women and she didn't have a problem expressing how she felt. In the text Mary's tone and characterization of herself is extremely intriguing. Reading this made you see Ms. Wollstonecraft as a unmovable force because she was mocked yet continued to stand by her writings and the tone in her comparisons of marriage to slavery, showed you she meant business. Although her community drowned out her views by making a scandal of her life she was still immovable and her essay's lived on past her time to be appreciated.
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