Neither have I.

I'm in the early days of doing a degree in English Literature and I'm 4 weeks away from my 2nd essay.
I am to read about 4 people and select 2 of them to scrawl about for some credits.

The first of the 4 people is a woman called Mary Wollstonecraft... who up until now i kept calling her Wollenscroft.

I have a chapter to read through so I thought we could go through it together... if you've nothing better to do :)

I'm rather limited in what i currently know about Mary Wollstonecraft. So far, all i understand is that she was a female philosopher who lived between 1759 and 1797. So she died aged 38. Not sure if that's important, but i'm personally curious as to what she died of at such a young age.

And there was a brief mention that she stood for women's rights, some calling her the mother of feminism and therefore, in those days, i imagine she got quite a lot of stick about that. So, let's see...

Chapter 1

"She was neither a warrior queen nor the mother of a deity. Her writings receive relatively little public exposure.

She has been hugely influential, but hers is an influence of ideas rather than of name or personal story" - Barber, A. (2019)

In 1762, Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a detailed account of why
‘it is part of the order of nature that the woman obey the man’.
This inspired Mary to write a full blown defence book which confronted the idea of social equality, especially between sexes. I think we will be revisiting this book a little further on.

"Do today what they did yesterday, merely because they did it yesterday?"

FUN FACT

Painted by John Opie, this is a portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft during the early months of her pregnancy in 1797.
Her baby only turns out to be.... the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelly! (gasp!)

Wollstonecraft died soon after giving birth. Yet to learn why...

Chapter 2

The ad hominem fallacy - a flawed way of thinking

In 1759 Britain, Mary Wollstonecraft was born into a just-above poverty family which includes her and 5 brothers and sisters.
Her grandfather owned a manufacturing business and was doing alright for himself, but her father, who has been noted to behave quite violently at times, hadn't inherited anything from his father's business. Instead, he seemed to get into lots of debt before fleeing to various locations throughout London and Yorkshire, moving house a lot to avoid repaying his debts.

Despite the hardships of being part of an unsettled family, as soon as Mary was old enough she became a teacher.
Teaching was one of the only jobs educated women were allow to do in those days.

For awhile she was the personal tutor for Edward King, the Viscount Kingsborough.

(Wikipedia)

He was a student of antiquities, things of the past, and in particular he sought to prove that indigenous people of America were a lost tribe of Israel. Just saying.

Anyway, back to Mary.

It was through these teachings that allowed Mary to become acquainted with aristocratic life. It's worth noting that she referred to Edward's family as talentless, leading a mindless life. Her interactions with this family and their connections put a negative spin on aristocracy for Mary.

Inspiring more negativity towards the aristocrats were a small group of non-conformists that Mary had met whilst working in a small village just outside of London. The village was a kind of refugee camp for those who did not wish to associate with the Church or conform with the political systems and therefore were forced out of the city.

(https://www.new-unity.org/about-heritage)

Part of a National Network, this group became Mary's second family. They helped her find work, loaned her money to enable her to run a village school, and pulled her into a world of radical thinking.

During this time, and the surrounding decades, it was a time of change across the globe. Questions and science were rapidly flooding the system. The old ways were being scrutinized like never before. The bible was becoming ever more untrusted, the teachers and preachers, even more so.
Throughout Europe, people were becoming louder, stronger. It became an era of reformists against conservatives, with political authority being the most widely challenged. And Mary was alive and kicking right in the middle of it all.

To keep perspective here as to what radical meant for the 18th century, many views that were radical in the 1790's are now commonplace. No one seriously argues today that voting should be limited to a few wealthy male landowners, for example.
It was a serious criminal offence at the time, to question the natural superiority of the social hierarchies which mostly consisted of white men, many groups of white men, throughout Europe.

We now live in an egalitarian age, an age committed to social equality.

"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. He who believes himself the master of others is no less enslaved than they." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)

So to begin with, Mary started off as a big fan of Jean-Jacques. Although a few decades apart in what they stood for, they were essentially on the same side of the political argument.

Jean-Jacques was also a philosopher. His political philosophy influenced the progress of Europe's Enlightenment, an intellectual and philosophical movement, as well as inspiring aspects of the French Revolution.
It was painful for Mary to read his book entitled Emile on Education where he wrote;

"In ‘fulfilling nature’s ends’, men ‘ought to be active and strong’ and women ‘passive and weak’."
"A woman is made to please and to be subjugated and so ‘ought to make herself agreeable to man."
(1762)

Writing to her sister, Mary declared that she was going to be ‘the first of a new genus’, a female professional writer.
Adding, ‘I tremble at the attempt'.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was published in 1792.

Once Mary had found a publisher for this book, she was given just a few months to complete it for publishing. I wonder if this was standard practice or if it was just because she was a woman?

It of course, forced Mary to rush her work, and it showed. Her book contained many repetitions and ramblings, it must have really annoyed her. Apparently she always intended on following it up with a polished version but alas, her early demise kinda prevented that.

Nonetheless, her book was a powerful one, striking arguments that are still provocative to this very day. The conclusion being, that women are not naturally inferior to men.

(https://blog.uwgb.edu/revolutions/womens-rights-and-the-french-revolution/)

To be more precise, Mary loudly puts it out there that, yes, men are designed to be physically stronger than women, but by jove, it does not mean they are stronger in character. (By a person’s ‘character’ she meant their habits, their capacity to reason, their inclinations, their degree of determination etc...)

"Wollstonecraft wished to show that, physical strength aside, men’s natural superiority over women was every bit as illusory as the natural superiority of aristocrats over the wider populace. The authority of men – their stranglehold on positions of power, and the rights husbands had over their wives – was therefore every bit as illegitimate as aristocratic power." - Barber, A. (2019)

In those days it was common to assume that people from different social strata, or different races, or even different nations, had naturally different characters. It was Mary who began to question all this out loud.

"She should be educated only well enough to allow her to be interesting in conversation to her future husband and to provide him with emotional support." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Portrait-of-a-husband-and-wife-seated-at/DE33305E8E2030DF)

Mary thinks the differences between men and women are real but she rejects Jean-Jacques claim that they are a product of nature.
He believes that because women acted the way they did, it made sense for them to serve men. Women being more caring and flim-flammy compared to the almighty male who is very physically and gets things done. Apparently.
Mary, also painted women negatively due to their vain, image obsessed lives, continuing to please men without a dream of wanting education, but Mary's main argument was that this wasn't due to nature. It shouldn't be this way.
Women can be educated, can be just as good as men in their characters and decision makings, it is just this ongoing lifestyle stemming back hundreds of years, this was not nature. Things could change. Women and society can change.

If you were a girl, you would be given a doll to play with. If you were a boy, you would be denied access to dolls. Once kids grow up with this, it can only be passed down generations in the same way... until someone braves up to make a difference.

"Once we stop believing that these differences are natural, we will change the way we treat our children and the differences themselves will disappear." - Mary Wollstonecraft

Perhaps the 18th century was the era when we first ever questioned nature vs nurture?
and it still gets debated uncertainly even to this day!

One of the boldest statements Mary made in her book was;

'a person’s character should not be tied to the sex they were born with'

Chapter 3

Mary's books had secured her a place in the mind of the educated public. By 1792 she found herself fleeing England, heading to Paris. She was escaping an awkward infatuation with a married artist. Where better to get it out the system than in Paris.

With the French Revolution looming, Mary was hoping to influence the anti-aristocratic revolution towards recognising women's rights. Not long after her arrival however, the Revolution took a horrific turn.
A turn that came to be known as THE TERROR OF 1793–94.

The Revolution didn't exactly start off pleasantly, but people from all sides were taken aback as political allies were guillotined or exiled, including many of Mary's friends and allies. Foreign nationals, except American's, were declared enemies.

Luckily for Mary, she was under protection of her new American lover, a businessman known as Gilbert Imlay whom she met in Paris.

(https://www.geni.com/people/First-Lieutenant-Gilbert-Imlay-Continental-Army/6000000013302240732)

He got her pregnant, no mention if it was something she intended or an accident, but they returned to England in the early stages of her pregnancy.

Gilbert turned out to be a nob head. As soon as they hit London, he was out shagging young women and ended up disowning Mary and their unborn child.
Mary continued to pretend to be Mrs Imlay despite being against marriage which was a kind of slavery at the time. But she was penniless and pregnant, marriage was what she needed. But after many emotional letters of proposals to Gilbert, she was simply ignored by him, denied marriage.

However, he did allow her to travel (at her request) to Scandinavia in order to sort some of his business out. So off she went with their newborn baby who they'd named Fanny.

Mary tried to kill herself twice over Gilbert, but she failed. Eventually managing to put thoughts of him out of her mind and get on with life. With the support of her friends, she began to write again.

Chapter 4

In 1796, Mary began a relationship with a man called William Godwin, a fellow radical and a political philosopher.

(https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/84372192997813866/)

Both were not a fan of marriage and property, but after Mary became pregnant with her second child, they married for protection. William was the one for Mary. They were very affectionate, best friends with similar mindsets, and even their arguments were conducted to the highest philosophical standards. It seemed like it was meant to be.

But no. Doom to be.

Giving birth to their child, her second daughter, in 1797, Mary died soon after the birth (the birth of Mary Shelley) after contracting an infection.

So now we know. Mary aged 38, killed by germs after a birth. After finally finding the love of her life. These tragic stories can be found commonly throughout history. Gutting. But then i wonder if that hadn't happened, would Mary Shelley have still written Frankenstein?

Mary Wollstonecraft's Reputation. One extra point to make...

Throughout her life, Mary had been quite reserved about what she leaked into the public about herself. Having her first child out of wedlock, having an affair with a married man, her two suicide attempts, her failed marriage proposals to Gilbert, all of this was never aired. Mary had grown popular, was followed by many well-to-do people, her name and all that she stood for was so important to her.

"Wollstonecraft, for all her idealism, was pragmatic about her reputation as a woman, and had done her best to keep much of this hidden during her lifetime." - Barber, A. (2019)

It is a shame then, that her one and only, the love of her life, ruined all that by sparking up a scandal... by accident.

William was of the mind that Mary, being part of the Enlightening like he, would want all truths to be bared, to be remember in ones fullest form. So he decided to create a sort of shrine, in the form of a memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft's life.

"What he may not have anticipated, as a man, was the public’s vehement reaction to the details of her life being revealed" - Barber, A. (2019)

He reveled all of the truths Mary had tried so hard to hide.

"The ensuing scandal was devastating not only to her personal reputation but to the reputation of her philosophy." - Barber, A. (2019)

It caused silly, yet damaging accusations such as, if you read Mary's Vindication book, then you surely are like her and therefore you must be shamed.
If anything, William's so called shrine, acted as a wise tool for the future, to help people remember what is best to avoid saying when conducting sentiments and opinions.

"The entry for ‘Prostitution’ in the index for the 1798 volume of the journal contained nothing except ‘see Mary Wollstonecraft’. "

That's a bit dramatic eh!

Mary's work, her ideals, her philosophy, her book, it all went out of fashion, it became unmentionable. It would be another 50 years or so until her life and work was picked up again.

"Wollstonecraft’s reputation as a thinker eventually recovered as the women’s suffrage movement gained ground, first in North America and then in Europe. However, academic philosophers took longer to admit her into their fold and it was not until the late twentieth century that her work and ideas began to be counted as philosophy and taken
seriously. Vindication is now recognised, even by those who do not agree with it, as making an enormously important contribution to debates that are still with us to this day" - Barber, A. (2019)

All who view women with a philosophical eye must wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more masculine.

Wollstonecraft, (1792)

(Mary Shelley with her sister who is wearing a neck of her mum, Mary Wollstonecraft.)

And that is, that.

That's the end of my book reading, I have a bunch of online things to delve off into but this is for another day.

It really has helped me remember more by writing on the go. Any practice is good practice i suppose :)

If you have reached this part of my waffle, congrats! you now know as much as i do about Mary Wollstonecraft :D