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WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY, "A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN" & "MARIA, OR THE WRONGS OF WOMAN."

Examines author's feminism & applies ideas from non-fictional "Vindication" to fictional Maria & her family in late 18th Cent. England.

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This study will apply the ideas from Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to its fictional companion Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, showing how the ideas in Vindication are embedded in Maria. Essentially, Vindication argues that the inferior position of women in British society in the late 18th century is due not to any innate defect or weakness in women, but rather to the fact that men have the power to define and shape relationships, to make the laws, to own the property, and to decide the destiny of the genders socially, economically, and politically. The author does not absolve women of their responsibility for this situation. She first acknowledges the natural physical strength which men have over women, then adds:
But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men

Thrown into a madhouse by hercruel husband and the patriarchal society which supports his inhumanemistreatment of her, Maria maintains her will to fight, but questions thereason for that fight: "And to what purpose did she rally all her energy?--Was not the world a vast prison, and women born slaves?" (WollstonecraftMaria 11). In that conclusion to Vindication, Wollstonecraft might seem tooverestimate the goodness of men and their willingness or ability toradically alter their patriarchal attitudes toward and treatment of women.However, her call for a "REVOLUTION in female manners" (her capitalizationand emphasis) suggests that she knows full well that it will take a full-fledged movement of radical feminism to change the structure of thepatriarchal society. To rise in the world, and have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure, they must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is sacrificed, and their persons often legally prostituted (Wollstonecraft Vindication 6 ). . A woman in such a society does have power, which Wollstonecraftacknowledges. she has been placedagainst her will in an insane asylum by her husband George, who is able tocommit her legally without her having any legal recourse. . (Wollstonecraft Vindication 2 1). The final straw for Maria is her husband's agreement with another manto have sex with Maria in exchange for a loan. Essentially, Vindication argues that the inferior position of womenin British society in the late 18th century is due not to any innate defector weakness in women, but rather to the fact that men have the power todefine and shape relationships, to make the laws, to own the property, andto decide the destiny of the genders socially, economically, andpolitically. Marriage such as the one betweenMaria and George is an arrangement based on the utter domestication ofMaria, the complete elimination of her ability to reason effectively as anindependent human being. Works CitedWollstonecraft, Mary. The future, Wollstonecraft seems toconclude, lies in the hands of women fighting together for justice andreason, for the rights of woman given by God and stolen by men. The book remains unfinished, for Wollstonecraft diedeleven days after giving birth to her second child, but the author's notesfor possible endings suggest that women can find the strength withinthemselves and in league with one another to overcome the despair, toescape the patriarchal prison, and to live for one another and for theirchildren. A reasonablewoman who thinks for herself, who defies her wicked husband, who refuses tobe turned into a prostitute, is, according to such a society, by definitioninsane. One might decry the abuses perpetrated by men againstwomen, by husbands against wives, but the specific outrages committed byGeorge against Maria give one a more passionate sense of the injustice ofthoseabuses. She refuses to obeyher evil husband, refuses to passively endure whatever cruel tormentsGeorge dreams up, and society allows him to declare her legally insane.According to the patriarchal definition of sanity for women, she is,indeed, insane. She is a stronghuman being who is pushed to the limit by her wicked husband.Wollstonecraft may present a fine polemical argument for the rights ofwoman and against the abuses of men in Vindication, but her graphicdescription of the suffering of Maria in the novel is, in this reader'sview, far more powerful in awakening one's rage and compassion. The element upon which Maria's story stands is her relationship withJemima. In any case, Maria confronts her husband andtells him she is going to leave him: "I have borne with your tyranny andinfidelities. Together, they form a feminist bond which endures andgrows in strength through endurance. In Vindication, Wollstonecraft champions reason, virtue,independence, and the rights of women to "the same natural 'rights'" whichmen enjoy: "a right to liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness orvirtue" (Wollstonecraft Maria v). Wollstonecraft leaves no doubt about her intent with the novel."My main object," she writes, is "the desire of exhibiting the misery andoppression, peculiar to women, that arise out of the partial laws andcustoms of society" (Wollstonecraft Maria 5). Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman. While thegeneral circumstances of abuse and deprivation of rights described inVindication in society at large are obviously unjust and rightly draw theire of the reader, the specific suffering of Maria gives those generalabuses an individual human context with which the reader can moreprofoundly identify. By "partial laws and customs," the author means that her society isone in which only the rights of men are protected, and the rights of womenexist only insofar as men allow them to exist. As a microcosm of society,the marriage reflects this legal reality. Women, she argues, are raised to see marriage as theirprimary goal and purpose in life, the only means to happiness. Making the exchange evenmore enraging and painful for Maria is her feeling that the man had beensomething of a friend to her. Thereseems to be in Maria little hope that men will change on their own, if atall, and if any change does come it will do so as the result of the effortsof women banding together in love and concern for one another and for theirchildren. Inany case, Darnford is not the key to Maria's freedom. Indeed, the world may be a prison for women, but Maria, aided byJemima, finds the will and strength to create a world of relative freedomwithin that prison. They are both, essentially,the property of men. New York: Norton,1994.---. Women in general are the victims of male-dominated society, but theindividual woman--in this case, Maria--who is imprisoned in a terriblemarriage is, to Wollstonecraft, the most miserable of victims: For my part, I cannot suppose any situation more distressing, than for a woman of sensibility, with an improving mind, to be bound to such a man as I have described for life; obliged to renounce all the humanizing affections, and to avoid cultivating her taste, lest her perception of grace and refinement of sentiment, should sharpen to agony the pangs of disappointment. . I disdain to utter what I have borne with. If the ideas of Vindicationdo not reach the reader and cause him or her to awaken to the wrongsperpetrated against God and humanity (both male and female) by therepressive, patriarchal society, then perhaps that reader might be drivento rage at George's arrogant abusiveness or to compassion for the abusedMaria. She essentially asks men in power to considergranting women the rights she says they should be guaranteed by God. Men such as George, on the other hand, are incapable of learningcompassion from their own suffering, but instead only look for revenge. Women are raised to believe that their happiness, their veryexistence, are dependent on pleasing men, on being loved by men, on beingalluring to men. I thought youunprincipled, but not so decidedly vicious." She tells him that she hasfelt the temptation of other men but has determined to remain faithful tohim and to the vows of marriage which she held sacred. [have] their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves (Wollstonecraft Vindication 43). In the case of Maria Venables, the reader finds a woman whose husbandhas her locked away in a madhouse--legally--for showing signs ofindependence or "disobedience." Whereas Vindication speaks in broad and general ideological terms,Maria brings the argument down to its most basic unit--the family. This study will apply the ideas from Mary Wollstonecraft's AVindication of the Rights of Woman to its fictional companion Maria, or TheWrongs of Woman, showing how the ideas in Vindication are embedded inMaria. Asrepresentative of men of his society and time, and especially of husbands,George is shown to be a thoroughly evil man, a man incapable of anymeaningful change in his attitude toward women and especially toward hiswife, whom he sees, and whom society sees, as his legal property. In fact, that society, described in detail in Vindication andportrayed fictionally in Maria, supports not Maria but George, not thevictim but the victimizer. . . Women in Wollstonecraft's era inEngland are deprived of their rights whenever men so desire. I should despise, or rather call her an ordinary woman, who could endure such a husband as I have sketched (Wollstonecraft Maria 5-6). One might argue that Darnford is meant to represent some new varietyof man, an individual capable of seeing women as human beings and notmerely objects of pleasure. She first acknowledges the natural physical strength whichmen have over women, then adds: But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavour to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society (Wollstonecraft Vindication 7). . Only when women are educatedin freedom to develop themselves and their gifts, through reason andunderstanding, can they, and men, and society, profit fully from all theyhave to give. Wollstonecraft writes that "Reason is absolutelynecessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly" (WollstonecraftVindication 64). Their shared power stands in starkcontrast to the passivity of the other women in the book, who obedientlyfollow the dictates of the men in their lives. If the husband decides toignore or override that power, through various abuses, includinginstitutionalization, he may do so legally at any moment, with no recourseavailable to the woman. Wollstonecraft's basic argument in Vindication is that a woman, likea man, is created by God and is therefore meant to develop her talents andher mind and spirit to the fullest, as expressions of God's greatness inhuman existence. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. All that Wollstonecraft showsto be wrong with society in the ideas of Vindication, in terms of the abuseof women, is shown in dramatic form in Maria. . By just then, O ye men of understanding! Women, in effect, are created by mento be simultaneously innocent and seductive: Women are every where in this deplorable state; for, in order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength. The author does not absolve women of their responsibility forthis situation. A wife, then, to Wollstonecraft is "often" nothing more than a legalprostitute. Maria is not an "ordinary" woman, not a wife who will obey herabusive husband in the name of marital duty. Without education, without these rights,without adequate social, economic, political, or legal power, especiallycompared to and in relationships with men, women are reduced to the levelof playthings for men, to be adored one moment and mercilessly abused thenext. This fact revealsthat marriage is even worse than legalized prostitution--it is legalizedslavery. Not only does the system not support Maria, itallows George to have her locked away in a madhouse. Women . Clearly, then, the subjugation of women by men in societyand in marriage is an act of defiance against the will of God. This is the state into which women are educated bysociety, which is a construct of men. . As it is, however, Wollstonecraft writes, Women have not any inherent rights to claim; and, by the same rule, their duties vanish, for rights and duties are inseparable. Whereas menare raised to consider which of many professions they might seek to pursue,women are taught to think only of marriage, which means thinking only ofwhat they can do to please and snare a man so that he might care for themand provide them with the pleasures of life: It is not business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights of ambition, that engross [women's] attention; no, their thoughts are not employed in rearing such noble structures. Vindication certainly addresses the institution of marriage in themost critical terms. Vindication does not adequately address this need for femalesolidarity in the fight for freedom from men, but Maria certainly makes upfor that deficiency in Wollstonecraft's argument in the earlier work.Jemima and Maria are of entirely different backgrounds, differentsocioeconomic classes, but they are sisters in terms of their imprisonmentin a world run by men for the benefit of men. Sanity for a woman in the society of Wollstonecraft andMaria is obedience, passivity, following every dictate of her husband andthe patriarchal society from which he draws his abusive power. Maria is driven to suicide, the notes suggest, but is saved byher own will, by Jemima's intervention, and by the sight of her child(Wollstonecraft Maria 136-137). Tellingly, Maria takes five minutes in which she struggles in hersoul between the choices of life and death, between yielding to her miseryor choosing to help her daughter survive and transcend more easily than shehad the confines of the prison of cruel and inhumane patriarchy. That key is providedby herself, her will and reason, by her friend and fellow prisoner Jemima,and by her love for her child. Those five minutes may be seen as symbolic of the power of reasonwhich Wollstonecraft champions in Vindication. . Women, inthe crucible of man's abuse, are "organized" not for full development oftheir faculties and soul but for "ignorance." Wollstonecraft argues thatthe worst result of such abuse is the perpetuation of stereotypes aboutwomen's character: I come round to my old argument; if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an understanding to improve. Taught from their fancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming around its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Such an argument would be reasonable, butDarnford's attitude is in part the result of his own imprisonment, his ownsuffering. In the case of Maria, her marriage, at thebeginning of the book, has been severely adjusted. . And when, to render the present state more complete, though every thing proves it to be but a fraction of a mighty sum, she is incited by present gratification to forget her grand destination, nature is counteracted, or she was born only to procreate and rot (Wollstonecraft Vindication 63). Now, however, shedeclares, "you dare . In thisunit, society finds microcosmic expression. However, that power--to seduce, to please a man physically--exists only at the whim of the man, or, more specifically, as Mariadepicts, at the whim of the woman's husband. Wollstonecraft is not against marriage per se, but only against thepernicious form it had taken in her time. The contract of such a legal relationship is determined by thebuyer, the husband, who defines that contract as well as decides when itwill be terminated or adjusted. Certainly some men helped in the liberating processthat was to come, and which still continues today, but withoutrevolutionary women the situation of Maria would still be commonplace todayin England (as it is too often commonplace in nations which maintain theirpatriarchy). Although Wollstonecraft in Vindication does have her moments of rageat those men who perpetuate lies about the character of women, for the mostpart she presents a reasonable if impassioned plea for fairness from men intheir treatment of women. and mark not more severely what women do amiss . . . Wollstonecraft argues that most of what are seenas the weaknesses of the female gender are in fact direct results of thesocial, economic, political, and educational deprivation of women at thehands of men: "Asserting the rights which women in common with men ought tocontend for, I have not attempted to extenuate their faults; but to provethem to be the natural consequence of their education and station insociety" (2 ). Vindication is a plea, then, to both men and women: to men to "letwoman share the rights" (2 1), and to women to take part in a "REVOLUTIONin female manners" (199). In a society based on justice and decency, the legal system wouldsupport Maria in her efforts to flee such a despicable man and so corrupt amarriage. Maria is certainly no such meek or ordinary woman. to insult me, by selling me to prostitution!--Yes--equally lost to delicacy and principle--you dared sacrilegiously to barterthe honour of the mother of your child" (Wollstonecraft Maria 95). In Maria, however, written after Vindication, Wollstonecraft seems tosuggest that men cannot be relied upon to alter their views or to grantwomen the rights they are granted by virtue of God's creation. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1996.----------------------- 13 and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to whom ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse than Egyptian task-masters, expecting virtue where nature has not given understanding!

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