University of LjubljanaFaculty of Arts

Department of English

Mary WollstonecraftMaria: or, The Wrongs of

Woman

Author: Urška Podmenik

Mentor: doc.dr. Mojca Krevel

Ljubljana, March 2011

Contents1. Introduction..............................................32. “Truths” about Women......................................42. Marriage in the 18 Century.................................53. Mary Wollstonecraft’s life................................64. Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman............................8Maria.......................................................9Jemina.....................................................10Peggy......................................................11Maria’s landladies.........................................11

5. Gothic Romance vs. Philosophical Novel...................126. Conclusion...............................................13Bibliography................................................14

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1. Introduction In my seminar paper, I will explore the position of women in

18th century England as presented in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria:

or, The Wrongs of Woman, in which she describes the lives of five

women, representatives of all classes and the injustices

committed against them. I will first illustrate how women were

seen and how marriage as an institution functioned, at that

time. Seeing as the novel is semi-autobiographical, I will also

present Mary herself, focusing on her view on the position of

women and her contributions to feminism. I shall also discuss

the two ways in which the title might be understood. Moving

forward, I will describe Maria’s story, where I will

concentrate on autobiographical elements that are presented in

the novel, as well as the stories of other women, whose lives

were rendered miserable by the marriage system and the lack of

women’s rights. At the end, I will try to determine to what

genre the novel belongs and the reasons way Mary chose this

particular one.

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2. “Truths” about Women The universal perception of women in the 18th century was that

they were frail and emotional creatures, whose primary concern

was to please men. At that time, it was believed that a human

mind is brought into the world with innate capabilities and

that some limitations were naturally fixed. As long as this

view prevailed, the undeniable fact that women were deemed as

being intellectually and morally dependent and inferior could

not be disputed. (Brailsford 135)

The education of women should always be relative to that

of men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and

esteem them, to educate us when young to take care of us

when grown up, to advise, to console us to render our

lives easy and agreeable; these are the duties of women at

all times, and what they should be taught in their

infancy. (Rousseau 137-138)

This is a quote by Rousseau and it clearly demonstrates the

prevailing attitude towards women at that time. It was a denial

of a woman’s personality and humanity and reduced her to the

level of a slave. Women were defined solely in relation to men

and expected to follow morals which were different from those

pertaining to the latter, who demanded a sensitive weakness and

a shrinking timidity. Courage, honor, truth, sincerity,

independence were all aspects of a male ideal and considered

unnecessary for women. What is more, they were even considered

harmful for a woman’s marriage prospect. (Brailsford 139)

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A woman’s subjection not only affected her relationship with

men, but her attitude to nature and God as well. The husband

was seen as a priest intervening between a woman and God and

the image of a woman praying was considered to be an

“aphrodisiac”. Chastity however was considered the most

important attribute that a woman could posses, since it

enhances the pride of possession. When it comes to sex, women

were expected to do everything in their power to excite and

please men, regardless of their own desires or lack thereof.

Rousseau saw the penis as a symbolic weapon, given to men by

God in order to exert their “natural” power over women.

(Brailsford 140)

2. Marriage in the 18 CenturyUntil the late 19th century, British marriage was founded on

villeinage, a feudal institution, by which in law, the wife was

the property of her husband in every way. She lost all rights

as a single woman and every aspect of her life was controlled

by her husband, who was also civilly responsible for all her

actions. This condition was called coverture.

A woman’s body also belonged to her husband, she had to be

obedient and he could inflict upon her whatever harm he

pleased. A wife had to withstand physical or mental abuse

without questioning, and the law was on the husband’s side no

matter what he did to her. The usage of private madhouses was

an extremely common way of punishment for disobedient daughters

and wives.

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The wife’s personal possessions before the wedding, such as

money, jewelry, household goods, and clothes became the

absolute property of her husband. He was free to do with them

whatever he pleased, whether he and his wife lived together or

not. He also had the legal ability to take any of her property

acquired after the marriage, even though it was earned by her.

In the event that the wife wanted to leave her husband, all her

effects were entitled to him. The legal custody of children

belonged to the father and the mother had absolutely no rights

over them, except over infants while she was breast feeding.

The father therefore had the legal right to deny the mother to

see her children, if he chose to do so.

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3. Mary Wollstonecraft’s life

One of the most influential feminist writers and philosophers

of the 18 century, Mary Wollstonecraft, was born on 27 April

1759 in Spitalfields, east London. Her family’s wealth came

from her grandfather, who upon his death bequeathed a third of

his estate to Mary’s father, one third to her elder brother Ned

and one third to his adult daughter from a previous marriage,

while Mary and her other siblings received nothing. Mary had

learned to endure hardship from a very young age. Her father

attempted to lead a life of a gentleman farmer, yet he never

succeed, which resulted in moving about a lot. He was also

prone to drinking and sometimes Mary would sleep on her

mother’s doorstep to intervene in her father’s physical abuse

and drunkenness.

During her teenage years, she sheared passionate friendships

with two girls, Jane Arden and Fanny Blood. On both occasions,

Mary ended up being disappointed, due to her over idealization

of the object of her affection and imagined scenes of domestic

tranquility to compensate for her years of abuse at home.

In the later years, she acquired a firm commitment to

independence, mostly due to her sister’s failed marriage, she

also helped her escape from her husband, and the death of her

beloved Fanny. This together with her mother’s unhappy marriage

made her realize what injustices and dangers lie behind women’s

economic dependence on men. In 1783, she established two

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schools for girls in order to support her sisters. She also

worked as a governess to one of the wealthiest families in

Ireland.

After her dismissal as governess, she attempted a career in

writing. In Joseph Johnson, she discovered a source of

intellectual and financial support. She started editing and

writing for his Analytical Review and was also accepted into his

miscellaneous circle of artists, poets and revolutionaries,

such as William Blake, William Godwin, etc. At Johnson’s she

met her next love, Henry Fuseli, who was a Swiss painter. He

was married and Mary proposed an experiment, she suggested that

she should move in with his wife and him. When they declined,

she was heartbroken.

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In 1792, she wrote what is probably her most influential work,

apart from the Wrongs of Woman, namely The Vindication of the Rights of

Woman. It contains her views on the education of women; she

firmly believed that there is no essential difference between

men and women and therefore they must be educated in the same

manner. She also criticized marriage and the established

behavior prescribed to women.

After her failed romance, se departed for Paris. She spent a

lot of time in Helen Maria Williams’ famous salons, where she

developed a new found appreciation for sexuality, sensuality

and pleasure. While being there, she fell in love with an

American business man, Gilbert Imlay and in May 1794, she gave

birth to her first child, named Fanny after her deceased

friend. In 1795, Gilbert moved in with another woman, which

and this resulted in two suicide attempts, yet out of her deep

unhappiness came what is thought to be one of her most

beautiful works, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Norway, Denmark

and Sweden. (Cracium)

After putting Imlay behind her, she found happiness with

William Godwin, a radical writer and philosopher. Their similar

views on social convention of that time and their want of

independence lead to a marriage, after they had discovered Mary

was pregnant. This caused an alienation of most of their

friends, who thought she was married to Imlay and they refused

to recognize the couple socially. Mary and William were very

satisfied with their arrangement, they continued to work and

dine out separately in order to avoid the evils of

cohabitation. The bliss, however, was short lived, as Mary died11

on 10 August 1797, ten days after giving birth to Mary

Wollstonecraft Godwin, later married Shelley. Her unfinished

novel, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman was published

posthumously by her husband. (Wollstonecraft and Godwin)

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4. Maria: or, The Wrongs of WomanMary Wollstonecraft’s unfinished and semi-autobiographical

novel, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman was published

posthumously by her husband in 1798 and it focuses primarily on

marriage as an institution and how it affected the condition of

women, as well as lack of employment for women. Mary uses a

third person omniscient narrator for the frame story and first

person narration for the stories of Maria and Jemina.

The frame story begins in a madhouse, where we meet Maria

Venables, an upper-middle-class woman, imprisoned by her

husband. She makes the acquaintance of a female guard, Jemina,

and a fellow prisoner, Darnford. During one of their

encounters, Jemina, a bastard child, who has to struggle and

suffer greatly, relates her life story. After she finishes,

Maria entreats her to ask after her daughter, who has been

taken away from her by George Venables, her husband. Jemina

learns that the baby is dead and Maria is crushed by the news.

She refuses to see anyone, but after much pleading on his side,

she sends Darnford her memoires, originally intended for her

daughter. This functions as another story within the framework

and we get to know Maria, her life-story, and how she got to be

imprisoned in the asylum. In addition to her story, we also

learn of other women she has met and the way the injustices of

the British legal system affected them. They represent women of

all classes and social backgrounds, in order to show that the

legal system affected women of all social classes.

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As the ambiguous title suggest, two versions of “wrongs” can be

found in the novel. The first one being wrongs done by women

and the second the wrongs done to women.

The first interpretation is the critique of women in the 18

century, who were over-indulging in emotions, without employing

reason at all. Mary believed that sensibility should act in

harmony with reason and that even though there is nothing wrong

with thought being infused with feelings, you should not allow

them to inhibit you from acknowledging the truth. Maria’s

relationship with her fellow prisoner Darnford may be

considered such an example. She reads his notes in books that

Jemina brings her and after, when they begin to exchange notes,

she starts imagining him as a hero from the romances she has

been reading, an ideal lover. When they meet, he confesses to

being “thoughtless” and “extravagant” and she immediately

dismisses his faults. “In a few words, he informed her that he

had been a thoughtless, extravagant young man; yet, as he

described his faults, they appeared to be a generous luxuriancy

of a noble mind.” (Wollstonecraft 27) The quotation illustrates

that she wanted to believe him so forcefully that her decision

was based entirely on emotions, instead of on reason as well.

Darnford is also one of the autobiographical elements in the

book, representing Mary’s lover George Imlay, who swept her of

her feet pretending to be a free-thinking captain and a

revolutionary, but turned out to be a gambler and abandoned

her, when he grew tired of her.

The second interpretation of “wrongs” is of course those done

to women, as a result of the prevailing attitude towards them,14

lack of education or better yet, wrong kind of education, but

foremost because of the British legal system, which allowed for

it.

MariaMaria, whose story is in the center, is an upper-middle-class

woman, married to George Venables. She was born in the rural

part of England. Her father was strict and his commands were to

be obeyed immediately, also her parents always favored her

elder brother, because he was a boy. We can already draw

parallels to Mary herself, having the same experience, although

Maria’s father is not openly described as abusive. Another

similarity is that both Maria and Mary’s mothers were blindly

obedient and never questioned their husbands’ authority. An

example of Maria’s indulgence in emotions and imagination can

be found in her descriptions of George Venables, her future

husband. She idealized him greatly and fancied herself “in love

with the disinterestedness, fortitude, generosity, dignity, and

humanity, with which I invested the hero I dubbed.”

(Wollstonecraft 64)

After Maria’s mother dies, her father takes a mistress, who

quickly makes living at home insufferable and Maria decides to

marry George. She says that he was by no means her favorite,

but since she had no other attachment and he was very anxious

to make her happy, something impossible in her present

situation, she decided to marry him. (Wollstonecraft 73) After

they marry, she begins to notice changes in her husband, but

discards them. Although once she realizes who her husband

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really is, she commences to see all to what she had been blind

before.

During the five of their marriage, her husband forces her to

borrow money from her uncle in order to cover his own debts and

has affairs with many women, with one of whom he even has a

child, who upon discovering, Maria supports with money. Another

example of the hypocrisy of the British legal system is shown

here; it permits men, but not women to commit adultery.

After learning she is pregnant, Maria finally decides to leave

her husband. She is well aware that she will lose all her

property and that her husband will pursue her, yet she has a

wealthy and supportive uncle and she can take refuge with him.

An unforeseeable event occurs, when Maria already leaves her

home, her uncle dies. She learns that he has bequeathed all his

property to Maria’s daughter and named her the guardian.

Somehow her husband hears of the news and decides that he wants

the money. He starts hunting her down like an animal and

finally catches up to her and confines her to the asylum.

Maria’s story serves as an example of upper-middle-class women,

who also had no power over their own lives, their property, or

their children. Maria was however lucky enough to have a

supportive uncle to whom she could go for help.

Jemina

She represents the lowest part of the social scale. Born as a

bastard child, she knows only suffering and misery. Childhood

is spent with cheap nurses, who often leave her hungry and

cold, and later on with her father, who marries another woman,16

not too pleased to have a bastard child in the house. Jemina is

treated like a slave and no one was ever kind towards her.

(Wollstonecraft 39) She later works in a shop and her master

starts abusing her, until one day she discovers she is

pregnant, the family throws her out and suddenly she finds

herself homeless. She is compelled to steal and sell her body

in order to survive. Being lucky enough, she begins to work for

a man, who treats her well and she also learned a lot from him,

but he dies very suddenly without leaving a will. In the final

part of her story, Jemina describes the hardships that a woman

faces when seeking employment. She observes that a man half her

ability and knowledge could have acquired a decent livelihood

quite easily. (Wollstonecraft 49)

Peggy

She is the niece of one the family servants in Maria’s home and

represents the lower middle-class women of the 18-century

England. Her husband is a sailor and after his death, she has

no means of providing for her young children. In addition to

that, before his death her husband instructs her to come to

London and sell their house and all their belongings. She also

discovers that he was in a lot of debt, which she has to pay

off. Seeing as her children are very young, she cannot go to

work, because she has nowhere to leave them in the meantime.

Fortunately, Maria is able to help her concerning the debts;

she also gives them clothes and prevails upon her uncle to buy

them furniture. Peggy’s story serves as an example of women

with children who were widowed and had no means of supporting

themselves and their children. (Wollstonecraft 66-68)

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Maria’s landladies

The two landladies, who rent Maria an apartment while she is on

the run, each tell her their story. One of them is treated very

brutally by her husband, yet holds the belief that women must

be submissive. (Wollstonecraft 105) The other manages to save

some money, but her husband legally robs her and after he left

her she works extremely hard to save up money again and buys

rooms she could rent out, but again the husband comes back. He

is extremely apologetic, so she forgives him, but some

creditors come and arrest him together with all her property.

(Wollstonecraft 111)

The stories of all the women serve as an example of the

injustices and hardship that women, no matter their class or

position, had to endure, because of the unfair legal system, as

well as the prevailing attitude towards them. She also

illustrates the difficulties women had to face when attempting

to find employment, in order to support themselves and their

children.

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5. Gothic Romance vs. Philosophical

Novel In the first paragraph of the novel, Mary invokes the Gothic

atmosphere of horror and pure imagination, yet she immediately

rejects it as, “formed of such stuff that dreams are made of”.

(Wollstonecraft 7) Still we are able to come across some

elements of the gothic atmosphere, such as “One recollection

with frightful velocity following another, threatened to fire

her brain…” (Wollstonecraft 7) There are also some cases, when

Maria wonders about Darnford and she refers to him as a

“villain”. (Wollstonecraft 34) The reason, in my opinion, that

Mary employs some elements of the Gothic Romance in the frame

story is to demonstrate what consequences romances, which have

no basis in reality, may have on the minds of young girls,

Maria being one of them. She has read those stories ever since

she was a child and they caused her to idealize her husband,

who later imprisoned her, and to over-indulge in emotions and

sensibility.

Apart from some elements of the Gothic Romance, the novel is

considered to be a Philosophical or Jacobin Novel. Its main

objective was to promote ideas of the French revolution such as

equality, no matter the social class,

citizenship and inalienable rights and others especially to the

lower classes. Mary Wollstonecraft’s novel extends those ideas

to women, not only men. It’s not only the novel as a whole,

which promotes these revolutionary ideas, but the part of the

novel, where Maria narrates her story, I think, contains many19

examples of social commentary. Here, she explains the

difference in situation that men and women face, when divorced.

“He, with lordly dignity, has shaken of a clog; and the

allowing her food and retainment, is thought sufficient to

secure his reputation from taint. And, should she have

been inconsiderate, he will be celebrated for his

generosity and forbearance. A woman, on the contrary,

resigning what is termed her natural protector (though he

never was so, but in name) is despised and shunned, for

asserting her independence of mind distinctive of a

rational being, and sprung in slavery.” (Wollstonecraft

89-90)

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At the end, when facing a court on the charges of adultery and

seduction, Maria writes an account of her actions addressed to

the court, in which she states all the injustices she had

faced. Yet the judge suggest that the “fallacy of letting women

plead their feelings, as an excuse of the violation of the

marriage-vow” and other “French principles in the public or

private life” are destroying “the good old rules of conduct”.

(Wollstonecraft 133)

6. ConclusionAs I have demonstrated in my seminar paper, Maria is an example

of the Jacobin novel and one of the earliest works of feminist

fiction. Mary uses her ideas, such as the belief that there is

no fundamental difference between women and men, what matters

is education and experience, and that the British legal system

converts women into slaves, when they marry; and turns them

into a work of fiction, so they may be understood by the lower

classes as well. All these ideas come from her earlier work,

The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. I find the ideas

presented in the book interesting and quite revolutionary for

that time and I enjoyed reading about Mary and her life as

well.

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BibliographyBrailsford, H. N. Shelly, Godwin and Their Circle. Edinburgh: River Side Press , 1954.

Cracium, Adriana, ed. Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: Routledge , 2002.

Wollstonecfart, Mary. The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 1975.

Wollstonecraft, Mary and William Godwin. A Short Residence in Sweden and Memoirs of the Author of "The Rights of Woman". London: Penguin Group, 1987.

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