Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be looked at like you are inferior to others? Like you are less intelligent and weaker? All because of your sex? This was a very common occurrence for women in England in the eighteen hundreds. Women were expected to pay less attention to cultivating their mind and learning to be independent, and rather pay more attention to their bodies and social behavior. Society judged women solely on these aspects, and men looked for a woman with the best of these qualities to marry (Wolf, n.d., para. 7). Moreover, women did not receive the same education that men did. Males thought that women were to fulfill domestic duties. Consequently, during the Romantic period of British literature, people began exploring

She wrote many pieces that discussed this theme, but the most popular and successful was A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This work was groundbreaking, as it set the platform for other women authors to write about women’s rights. Starting with the title, the word “vindication” means proof that something is right/justified. Wollstonecraft was basically saying this essay contains all the reasons to why women should have the same rights and be treated equally to men, with no question about it. One main problem women in this time faced was the inability to be independent because of what men thought about them. In chapter one, paragraph three of this essay, Mary states, “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone (Wollstonecraft, 1792).” By asking females to excuse her for treating them like rational creatures, she was showing that it was rare for women to be treated like an actual living human being, and were simply looked at like someone who was judged upon based merely on their appearance. Also by comparing the female gender to a “perpetual childhood” it shows that women were never able to be independent and make their own decisions, and were treated as if they were a child that had to be taken care of. People

All the girls in the novel felt extremely pressured to get married to a good man with riches and a good social status, as did their parents. For example, Lydia Bennet, the youngest sister, married Mr. Wickham, although he had no intention of marrying her, as she felt pressured because of the fact that her two older sisters, Jane and Elizabeth were soon to be married. This marriage was based solely on physical gratification, because Lydia was too immature and flirtatious to realize that Wickham did not actually care for her. Conversely, Jane Austen’s life was extremely different from that Bennet sister. Her love life just about mirrored that of Elizabeth Bennet’s. Both women had turned down a proposal, which was a huge deal in this day and age, and both were looked over by men like they were simply not enough. Moreover, they were atypical females and did not believe that being a wife was the only thing to strive for in