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Mary Wollstonecraft's View Of Human Nature

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Throughout history, philosophers and other enlightening figures have produced both ancient and contemporary influential pieces from cultures around the world. Ranging from the dominant-militant teachings found in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, to our more modern and liberating feminist novel of the 18th century, we have encountered a few passages that has shaped the behavior and ideas of the society around them and even ours today. A prominent theme relating to human nature arises among a few of the novels we engaged with in class. Although most concepts of human nature seem to pertain to the innate traits that are unique to an individual, an important necessity for living a healthy lifestyle requires a strong sense of community that is dependent upon …show more content…

Wollstonecraft quickly gets to her point that humanity’s greatest gift is the ability to reason and because both men and women have that capability, they should be treated equally. During her fairly-modern era, physical strength was no longer a necessary advantage in society, but rather an education. However, women were still being nurtured to solely please their husbands. For instance, Wollstonecraft eventually refutes with the opinion of an iconic philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau; “He advises them to cultivate a fondness for dress, because a fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them,” (Wollstonecraft, pg. 26). Wollstonecraft burns that assumption that this desire is not innate because women should not have to be encouraged to complete a natural ability, like eating food or sleeping. She then continues her argument for an equal education system and how to form a lasting relationship with a significant other during her contemporary epoch by stating “The most holy band of society is friendship. It has been well said, by a shrewd satirist, ‘that rare as true love is, true friendship is still rarer,’” (Wollstonecraft, pg. 20). It is evident that she sees the importance of friendship and the human connection as being rare, but also natural. In conclusion, the yearn for human interaction has always been an intrinsic characteristic of man (and woman). This natural attraction can be crucial in many cases, and this concept has been a prominent theme among the works of existential thinkers like Sun Tzu, Socrates, and Ms.

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Wollstonecraft’s on the other hand centers around how personal happiness is better over social obligation because the social obligation of woman is what will cause their downfall into being nothing more than lessee beings than their male counterparts. These opposing forces leave major conflicts, conundrums and despair in their place when left with a choice between the two. What is personal happiness? Personal happiness is when you can lay down on the grass in white jeans, feeling the sun while not worrying about stains. Personal happiness is when you find the most alluring and profound beauty in all the negative spaces of your life and mentality; it’s beating your own record in a game, getting the person of your dreams, the bonus and promotion from your job.

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Wollstonecraft strongly believed,“...both sexes must act from the same principle…” (Doc D) Wollstonecraft strongly wanted both sexes to follow the same criteria and be given the same educational rights, so that women could be wiser and more virtuous. Wollstonecraft and Locke both believed that all should be equal and this supports that women are one of the groups besides religion that were not given as many rights as others. She also thought,“... women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge...to full fill their peculiar duties...to free them from all restraint…”

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This is the major object Wollstonecraft recognizes concerning why women are secondary to men: every side of their background from the instant they arrive the world is positioned toward making them feeble, passive, and reliant on upon men. Women are entertained to only want to be attractive so they can appeal men. They take pleasure in their own humbleness and weakened physical strength. They partake in covetousness with other ladies. Since they are so restricted and restrained to the secluded domain, they become absorbed on no other responsibilities.

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In her document she claims that, “Women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men”(Wollstonecraft, On National Education). Wollstonecraft dynamically argued that if women had the right to study, they’d be able to prove they aren’t inferior by ignorance and low desires. Despite the fact that these four philosophers had contrasting ideas on how to enhance daily life, they all concentrated the same central idea. They each contributed something unique to their society, which has influenced our daily

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In my opinion, one of the most necessary requirements would be equality for women, no matter the color, religion, etc. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft, a writer, philosopher, and women’s rights activist, discussed advice given by a preacher in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She tells us that this preacher believes that women should be kept on a tight leash and kept close, along with many other dense comments. Mary becomes infuriated by this, and then writes one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. She discusses women deserving an education, and that we should not be treated as ornaments.

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Wollstonecraft had said, “...a profound conviction that the neglected education of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore, and that women, in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes…’(Wollstonecraft, 1). Between Shelley and

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The Reverberation of Mary Wollstonecraft in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) has often been regarded as one of the most influential and important articulations in the history of feminist theory. Wollstonecraft, addressing such issues as education, politics and marriage and debunking the myths of female frailties, vehemently argues for the rights of women and the equality of the sexes. In particular, Wollstonecraft’s views on marriage are continuously echoed throughout Jane Austen’s beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice (1812). Wollstonecraft’s notion that marriage should be based on friendship and respect rather than economic security or physical attraction is an ideal epitomized by the nuptials between Pride and Prejudice’s two leading characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Matrimony in eighteenth and nineteenth century England played a significant role in the lives of women.

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In the book of vindication of the right of a woman, Wollstonecraft brings out clearly the roles of a woman in her society and how it has led to oppression of women (Wollstonecraft 22). Wollstonecraft believes that men and women are equal given the same environment and empowerment, women can do anything a man can do. In her society, education for women is only aimed at making her look pleasing to men. Women are treated as inferior being and used by men as sex objects. Wollstonecraft believed that the quality of mind of women is the same with that of men, and therefore women should not be denied a chance for formal education that will empower them to be equal with men.

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In “The Birth and Death of Meaning” by Ernest Becker he is making an argument on the problems of man (Becker, 1971). Becker makes an argument on the reasons why people act the way that they do (1971). In chapter 10 Becker lists six of the common problems with humans (1971). The first question with the problem with humans is “what is the relation of man to nature?” (Becker, 1971, p. 114).

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Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.

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Throughout this text, Wollstonecraft discusses how close-minded society was about women and equality. She describes society as being under the impression that women and men were two different animals. Society also believed that men were free and logical thinkers that could rule and change society while women were seen as pretty objects that could bear children. Wollstonecraft’s feminist view discusses that the problem was not only men inhibiting women, but women themselves were also not pushing against the ideology that men were superior. She continues to explain her new feminist ideology that discusses changes in society that would create equality.

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Mary Wollstonecraft’s, Maria or The Wrongs of Woman, is an analyzation and critique about a woman’s place in society. Specifically, that socially, politically, and economically woman are at a disadvantage. Furthermore, society perpetuates this imbalance through certain expectations about motherhood, marriage, and double standards. This power imbalance has always been present in society and through the analyzation of Maria and themes such as: motherhood, domination, and traditionalist thought it is possible to contextualize the era that Mary Wollstonecraft lived in to gain a better understanding of what women went through in her time so that we have a reference to compare to how women are treated today.

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Mary Wollstonecraft states her opinion on the argument that education is the basis for gaining equality within a society. Educating women begin the process of educating the next generation. Mary Wollstonecraft mentions in her essay that an education for women is essential, for it is their gender’s responsibility to educate and nurture the next generation of children. Quoted in the phrase “such an attention to a child as will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the passions as they being to ferment, and set the understanding to work before the body arrives at maturity” (Wollstonecraft 220)”.

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Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to a report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education (Johnson Lewis). She believed that women needed to be educated in order to find their way to equality with men. Wollstonecraft writes in the introduction: “The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve

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Throughout her life, Wollstonecraft lived in a way that was unlike most women of her time. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft wrote “I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.” She refused to conform to society’s expectations of a

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