Transcendentalism In Margaret Fuller's Woman In The Nineteenth Century

Education and feminism were both significant ideologies that inspired Fuller to pursue a career as a social advocacy journalist, however, the most dominant philosophy she believed in was transcendentalism. It is known that Emerson was the fountainhead of the transcendental wave of spirituality. Many of his works dealt with humanistic and romanticist concepts, and one of his major legacies is his firm belief in mortal spirituality. This happens also to Margaret Fuller. Her life can be seen as an effort to find what she used to call “sovereign self” (5, 2). The key to her character and the secret of her strong individual influence and fiery sympathies was the power of the soul to receive and evoke. Fuller also sustained the idea that the soul

She is “a victim of her own knowledge, and is considered unattractive simply because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her” (8, 10). Her perspective conveys that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able to achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world. Fuller personifies what is wrong with the thoughts of people in nineteenth-century society. She is a well-educated, attractive woman and yet, in America, she is considered unmarriageable because of the unintended intimidation her knowledge brings forth. She can’t understand why men would not want to find a woman with whom they can carry on an intelligent, meaningful conversation and still be physically attracted to. She knows that once this inferiority complex is gotten past, women will start to excel in all different fields (7, 8). The intense passion of her message in Women in the 19th Century blows away both her male and female audience