Mary Wollstonecraft: Day 1

"Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice."
Mary Wollstonecraft's dedication to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
(addressed to M. Talleyrand-Périgord)

Points of Reflection

1. what other Romantic-era manifesto do the following words by Wollstonecraft anticipate? "I shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style; -- I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arugments, than dazzle by the elegance of my language . . . I shall be employed about things, not words!" (8-9)

2. note the various issues Wollstonecraft has with Rousseau (25, etc.)

3. Wollstonecraft uses the following words frequently. Come up with operational definitions for each of these terms, as she employs them: "virtue," "friendship," "love," "Perfectibility," and "Necessity."

"Stages of Cruelty" (1856)
Ford Madox Brown

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu