Maria by Mary Wollstonecraft
Nowadays, in the modern world, the fight for women’s equality has run rampant. Everywhere on the planet, men and women are declaring themselves feminists and trying to end a conflict that began in earlier Western Civilization. A big influence for the Women’s Equal Rights Movement was Mary Wollstonecraft. She is a well-known icon for this cause and her work, Maria or The Wrongs Of Women, although not as notorious as A Vindication of the Rights of Women, to me, is more powerful in depicting the oppression that women faced in that time in history.
The story was published in 1798 and it is about a woman, Maria, who was wrongly accused by her husband, George Venables, of being insane. Once there, she meets a woman who
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During the late 1700s and early 1800s, when the book first came out, the Romanticism Era was still alive and well. Women were viewed as nurturers and homemakers. With her child stripped away from her and her husband wanting nothing to do with her, Maria lost her domestic abilities.
Jemima’s story shows how women were held responsible for consequences that were not direct results of their actions. Throughout history women had little voice and input as to what would happen to them. Jemima’s need to survive resulted into her selling her body. A woman’s sexuality was often taboo during this time period, so her doing so was looked down upon. Also, the fact that she was raped, ended up pregnant and ultimately kicked out of the house is a great example as to the lack of ownership women had over their bodies.
Maria falling in love with a fellow asylum resident is a good representation of how women can thrive and love outside of a social construct, like marriage. She fell in love with a man who was at the same level as her and in an oppressed environment, exactly as she was. Also, her flourishing in the arts and literature in a time where the arts were being better appreciated and developed by many shows how much more women are capable of than just domestic