...Marry Wollstonecraft and Her Role in Activism Mary Wollstonecraft was a powerful thinker, philosopher, and women’s rights activist born in Spitalfields, London on 27 April 1759. According to Taylor, Mary Wollstonecraft made several accomplishments during her brief career including writing several novels, making treaties, travel narratives; conduct books, history of the French, and the children book (32). Besides her career, Mary Wollstonecraft is well recognized not only for the vindication of women’s rights but significantly advocated for the equal rights and opportunities for both men and women. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft was quoted saying that women were not naturally inferior to men rather appeared to be because they had no education. The 18th century notion of women being less important part of the society deterred the “integration of their rights” into the human rights was unthinkable (Miriam 43). However, Mary Wollstonecraft argued that if a man was born free and entitled to every human dignity so should be the woman. The understanding of human rights and liberties became the core pillar of Mary Wollstonecraft in the vindication of equal education opportunities for men and women. Mary Wollstonecraft has been severally quoted by today’s human rights activists in the fight against gender based violence among other injustices in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, Mary Wollstonecraft’s vindications and vision for the women freedom has not been fully realized nearly...
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...The writings of Mary Wollstonecraft directly and indirectly explore the irony of the woman’s position in Wollstonecraft’s culture: the female figure is at once central and alienated. The following annotated bibliography features articles about the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft by Steven Blakemore, Maria J. Falco, Cindy L. Griffin, and Vivian Jones. Three of the four authors take a feminist approach: Falco provides a collection of feminist critiques of Wollstonecraft’s work; Griffin asserts that Wollstonecraft is the first author to write about an alienation from the perspective of women’s issues and rights; and Jones’s essay comments on the sexualizing of the historical narrative by Helen Maria Williams and Mary Wollstonecraft. Blakemore provides a different approach, examining Miltonic references in Vindications of the rights of woman. References (Blakemore S 1992 Rebellious reading: the doubleness of Wollstonecraft's subversion of Paradise Lost)Blakemore, S. (1992). Rebellious reading: the doubleness of Wollstonecraft's subversion of Paradise lost. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 34, 451-80. Blakemore’s article is a close reading of the Miltonic references in Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the rights of woman. His argument centers on the proposition that during the revolutionary period writers attempted to subvert texts which “stressed the satanic dangers of epistemological curiosity” (p. 451). However, he feels that Wollstonecraft’s use of Milton rebounds...
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...When Mary Shelley’s mother dies of “puerperal fever on September 10, 1797, she left her newborn daughter with a double burden: a powerful and ever-to-be-frustrated need to be mothered, together with a name, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, that proclaimed this small child as the fruit of the most famous literary marriage of eighteenth-century England” (Mellor 1). Mary‘s childhood is filled with a desperate need for love and affection as her father, William Godwin “found it easy to express his obvious affection when his daughters were small, but as they grew older together he became remote and awkward, more dutiful than sensitive, unable to show what he really felt for them. They, too, had to fitted into the methodical timetable, with periods allotted when they might interrupt his writing or listen to his latest story” (Locke 217). Although Godwin admires Mary, he does not seem to feel any special affection for her and finds it difficult to express his fatherly love for her. Anne K. Mellor adds, as Mary Shelley grows into the author of one of the most famous novels ever written, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, “we can never forget how much her desperate desire for a loving and supportive parent defined her character, shaped her fantasies, and produced her fictional idealizations of the bourgeois family-idealizations whose very fictiveness, as we shall see, is transparent” (1). Just as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley’s childhood is filled with solitude and a desperate...
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...Ada’s birth. Her mother received sole custody, removing Lord Byron out of her life. Ada was raised by her maternal grandmother and servants, however her mother controlled her educational life. She was stern and austere, adamant that Ada was nothing like her poetic father. During these times women did not attend universities, but her aristocratic status allowed her to have private tutoring in subjects such as mathematics, music, French, and science. Her educators included social reformer William Frend, Dr. William King, and Scottish astronomer and mathematician Mary Somerville. Much to her mother’s dismay, she had a penchant for poetry and writing which she felt her mother suppressed. Her brilliance was evident even at the age of twelve when she wrote a book called Floyology that illustrated a flying apparatus design after observing birds. When Ada was 17 she met Charles Babbage at a party through her friend and mentor Mary Somerville. At this party he demonstrated his current project, the Difference Engine, which captivated Ada who saw the potential it had. Through their mutual love of mathematics, engineering, and logic these two became lifelong friends and collaborators. Ada and her mother would participate in unusual activities for women such as visiting factories to observe steam driven machines. One significant machine they observed was the Jacquard loom. This machine produced textiles with patterns that were instructed by punch cards. In 1835 Ada married William King, Earl...
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...Mary Wollstonecraft born in London April 27, 1759; to a father who had no control for his alcoholic habits and a mother who was Irish. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the six children and saw her comfortable childhood degrade slowly due to the fact that her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft, was losing his money on speculations. Later on, their family moved to Beverly because her father inherited a farm and then he lost all inheritance on drinking and gambling which affected her in many ways. In her days she attended a school in Beverly where she learned French and how to be a great wife. As she grow Mary took interest in reading and writing at home and in various social issues. As everything is going good for Mary suddenly her school days...
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...The theme of supernatural events and hideous beings encompasses Frankenstein. Over eight feet tall and uncharacteristically dreadful, the Creature is abandoned by his creator and shunned by society. He develops negative emotions in response to this rejection. Those feelings are furthered through his exposure to Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives, the Sorrows of Young Werther, and Ruins of Empires. Ultimately, these experiences and works of literature foreshadow the ultimate downfall of the Creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein. The Creature is not only the product of various body parts stolen from cemeteries but is also a product of the dark and supernatural. “Resurrected” on a dark, stormy night, the Creature immediately reveals himself as a monstrous being equipped with elementary emotions and reasoning. Victor Frankenstein, the Creature’s creator is shocked by his creation. Living a nightmare, Victor seeks rehabilitation and thus prepares to return home to his family. Unlike a relationship of father-to-son, Victor abandons the Creature in a futile attempt to rid himself of the nightmare he created. However, just before Victor leaves to go back home he receives news of his younger brother’s death. As he walks through the woods where his brother was killed, he catches a glimpse of the Creature and knows that he murdered his brother. As the novel progresses, more of Victors’ loved ones die at the hand of the Creature – even his fiancée. One day, Victor takes a vacation...
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...Warning: Beware of Creature On this, the night before Halloween, there are no more appropriate novels than Frankenstein to read. Although Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s original intent was simply to participate in a horror story contest with her friends (which she rightfully won), she ended up crafting a well-known, full-length masterpiece. Frankenstein is famous not only for being spooky, but also for its commentary on the themes of dangers of knowledge and hubris, and monstrosity via playing God and losing innocence. “‘I imagine you may deduce an apt moral from my tale...nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed’” (19). Through Frankenstein’s voice Shelley describes the greatest moral she has to offer from the suffering depicted in her story: the dangers of discovery and knowledge, which is that sometimes, however well-meant and innocent the intent may be, the expected result of scientific pursuits can turn out completely different than expected. Shelley’s prime example of this is the Creature and all the destruction he brings in his wake. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein -- more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation (33). This is the epiphany that leads to the creation of the Creature, undoubtedly a somewhat naive and enthusiastic motivation...
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...Imagine a society where “woman will either be the friend or slave of man, ” resulting in a separation of genders (34). During the 18th Century in Europe, there were many cultural and social differences between men and women. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft confronts the many norms of the time period that was a large intellectual and cultural movement. This period of Enlightenment spread throughout Europe quickly, especially through literacy. With people such as Wollstonecraft, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the cultures of then and now are capable of tracking the norms by understanding through reason and ultimately thinking for oneself (McChesney 02/02/2015). By using logic and reason, the evaluation of the social and cultural norms during the Enlightenment are evident. Wollstonecraft primarily identifies that there is a large difference of respect upon women...
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...social and political structures were becoming increasingly challenged. The French Revolution was influenced by Romantic ways of thinking such as what it means to achieve liberty for the individual. The romantic exploration of liberty for the individual through a connection to nature, imagination and spirituality through the sublime are represented in both Coleridge's poem Kubla Kahn and Keat’s “Ode to a Nightingale”. These romantic views were a direct reaction from the art of the enlightenment era as explored in the 1768 painting of Agrippina Landing at Brundisium, emotional stoicism is represented as being a model for morality in society. Revolutionary questioning of the fundamental nature of humanity and change for women was explored in Mary Wollstonecraft's text "A vindication in the rights of women". The 1768 painting by Benjamin West of Agrippina landing at Brundisium depicts the qualities of the Enlightenment that the romantics rebelled against. The neoclassical painting was popular during the enlightenment as it stressed logic, harmony, proportion and reason over emotion. This is represented in the paintings frieze-like composition and the buildings in the city background represent a structured, ordered society. The emotional restraint evident within the widow’s grief emphasises the...
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...Reading Between the Lines: An analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus, using Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto as an example of male discourse about women Louise Othello Knudsen English Almen, 10th semester Master’s Thesis 31-07-2012 Tabel of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Historical Context .............................................................................................................................. 10 The View on Women and Their Expected Roles in the late 18th and 19th Century ....................... 11 - Mary Shelley disowns herself .................................................................................................. 11 - Mary Shelley’s Background .................................................................................................... 12 Women’s Role in Frankenstein ..................................................................................................... 13 Men’s Role in Frankenstein ........................................................................................................... 13 - Women in Society and Women as Writers .........................................................
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...with your own terms of comparison. Marx and Wollstonecraft both had a strong knowledge of what was wrong in their current society between either a laborer and capitalists in the work force for Marx, or the coexistence of men and women in society for Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft argued women should have the right to be modest intelligent people, as to make better companions to their husbands. Not to rise above them but to be equal as gender and reasoning for both men and women should be the same, making a better society. For Marx, his argument was there are two classes the capitalists (bourgeois) and the laborers (proletarians). The relationship they had, which made up the work force, was a miserable and dreaded place which was not at the...
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...This essay explains three key features of the Age of Enlightenment that include liberalism, rationalism and equality. These key features will be explained in terms of how they reflect specific assumptions about children and education. Furthermore to evaluate how these ideas have impacted children’s education in both the past and the present. Liberalism requires members of society to develop liberal ideas such as individualism and independence amongst the likes of John Locke who wrote a book called ‘Some thought Concerning Education’ (1893) which emphasises the significance of early education in the home. “upbringing in the home is crucial for the development of good character” (May, 1997, p. 3). Rationalism is another imperative feature of the Age of Enlightenment as people used theory to make sense of human development along the likes of Rousseau. His book, ‘Emile’ is about the development of a young boy becoming a man using his ideas for child rearing. “education should be a response to the child’s curiosity and interest to natural world.” (May, p. 39-40, 2005) This theory was put into practice by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi who was so impressed with his ideas that “he attempted to rear his child according to Rousseau’s principles” (May, 1997, p. 11). The Enlightenment implies equality necessary for females to be educated alongside men to allow for equal opportunity. In Wollstonecraft’s book ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ (1792) she protests for women’s rights...
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...Wollstonecraft’s idea that men and women should be equal is very important because in today’s society feminism it is still very relevant. Today a new wave of feminism all over young women’s minds believes women should rise above men and be treated greater rather than equal. Many should read Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of Women’s Rights to see her reasoning as to genders being equal rather than greater than another. Many women are so angry that our gender has been suppressed for so long that they believe we should rise above the other gender but Wollstonecraft makes great arguments as to why natural rights make us equal and women should just have power over themselves to be educated and skillful independently to make themselves happy. In return...
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...Staying with topic of discrimination and the rights of individuals, is that of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Although Wollstonecraft wrote about the issues that plagued females that limited their privileges, she also acknowledged that with these privileges also came a responsibility and an anticipated change (Van Camp, 2014). Wollstonecraft was a woman without a background in a traditional learning environment and therefore sought the commonality between logic and learning from instruction in the quest to find liberty and virtue (Van Camp, 2014). The commonality and link between these is that essentially liberty is freedom and freedom has the ability to lead to happiness, as well as to find what is good in an individual thus virtue, if liberties are not given to women in the form of logic and education there lacks the freedom to find ones virtue (Powell, 1996). Jim Powell elaborates by quoting Wollstonecraft, “Wollstonecraft called for eliminating obstacles to the advancement of women, “Liberty is the...
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...From the Enlightenment style of thinking, feminism ideas continues to build on the role of females and brought in great attention to the global social aspect. In one of her most famous work, “Vindication of the Rights of Women” (1792), Mary Wollstonecraft criticized what the Revolution’s phase “ the rights of man” meant and argued that the Enlightenment’s idea of universal peace between men and women can only be followed if a mutual respect is developed in both of their political and social equality. Many arguments say that men have the power to lead the nature of humans to virtue and happiness in life due to the amount of education they have, a strong body, and the society’s support while women have “knowledge of human weakness justly termed...
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