In seminar today, the most interesting topic that arose was that of the opinion that Mary Wollstonecraft is a hypocrite.

In her own words, Wollstonecraft viewed women as “deluded”, “superficial”, “mindless” and “pretentious”. In brief, she streamed her book “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” on the inequality between the two sexes in terms of education. “Without knowledge there can be no morality.”

The two papers in seminar mention Mary Wollstonecrafts’ sarcastic tone and clever writing technique which may have given her more respect and indeed support should her own background have not been so obvious.

Wollstonecraft was said to have had a difficult background. Her father became extremely insecure financially and even squandered the money Wollstonecraft would have inherited in her maturity. He turned to alcohol and was an abusive husband. As a teenager Wollstonecraft would lie outside her mothers room at night and stop her father form entering to abuse her. Mary Wollstonecraft, in her later years became a governess to an Anglo-Irish family in Ireland, a job that was less than desirable. After learning from the children and indeed from her situation she became inspired to write about issues she had come across and which also had limited her dreams and ambitions in life. At a stage of her life, when in London, Wollstonecraft had an affair with an artist Henry Fuseli. Somewhat eccentrically, Wollstonecraft suggested that Fuseli, herself and his wife all lived together, but understandably his wife was disgusted and Fuseli broke off the relationship. In 1794, Wollstonecraft became pregnant to a man, Gilbert Imlay, although she was not interested and in fact was quite against the idea of marriage. In 1795, after Imaly had abandoned her and returned to France, Wollstonecraft attempted suicide twice, both overdosing and throwing herself into the river Thames. Wollstonecraft then entered into a social circle through William Godwin and the two, eventually, fell passionately in love and Wollstonecraft fell pregnant for a second time. The two married for the legitimacy of the child. However, the two lived separately in order to pursue with some concentration their highly successful careers. After the birth of their second child, Mary’s third, she died of septicemia.

This background was more than frowned upon in the eighteenth century and introduces the idea of hypocrisy. The opinion formed in seminar paper by Jenny that if you are going to produce such a big statement as Wollstonecraft did concerning the rights and education of women, then you should be prepared to deal with the criticism and consequences, especially if you have the somewhat questionable background that Wollstonecraft held. Wollstonecraft stated that “without knowledge there is no morality”. Se said that women lived up to expectations of being good housewives, seemingly seen and not heard and didn’t like this situation, however, with the risk of being viewed as judgemental, Wollstonecraft seems quite incapable of even holding the position of a good housewife. It is possible to enquire if it was for this reason that she pursued with her ideas and views. Perhaps Mary Wollstonecraft did not have the personality or the wishes to live the ‘normal’ life and rather than just accepting that as any other woman did, she spoke up. If looked at through another situation, she was like a child wanting dessert and not dinner, and so having a tantrem to embarrass their parents so they get what they want quickly and without too much hassle. Could Wollstonecraft have had the same intentions?

I agree with the opinion that she was very hypocritical in her views but I cannot deny the fact that she has had a dramatic effect on the situation of women today, one which without we would perhaps still be stuck in the past.