Family TiesAn analysis of the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft’s family life on her opinions regarding the model family

and women’s rights as she presents them in

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Published through good friend Joseph Johnson in 1792

One of the first works of feminist philosophy

Relationships

Parents

Ned

Bess

Everina

Hierarchy within the family:

Duties and Obligations Primogeniture

Coverture

Women’s Independence

Significance of Discovering this Link

Previously uninvestigated: Family life studied in relation to her novels, Mary: A Fiction

(1788) and The Wrongs of Woman (1798), her Original Stories from Real Life (1788), her Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796), and her Letters to Imlay (1798)

…but NOT A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Impacts the interpretation of the work by adding a sense of urgency Problems in society, which Wollstonecraft aims to correct,

affected and to some degree continue to affect REAL people

Mary’s Early Life Born on April 27, 1759 in

London Second oldest of five

siblings Baptized into the Anglican

Church Father came from a family

of prosperous weavers Father left manufacturing

just before the height of the Industrial Revolution during which the manufacturing class gained great wealth

Placing hope in the social flexibility of the revolutionary period, Wollstonecraft’s father attempted to raise his position in society by settling on a farm and creating a life of leisure for himself

Farm failed - her father turned to alcohol

Father’s Domestic Abuse Letter to Jane Arden in June 1779

“It is almost needless to tell you that my father’s violent temper and extravagant turn of mind, was the principal cause of my unhappiness and that of the rest of my family” (Wardle 66)

“His passions were seldom directed at me, yet I suffered

more than any of them” (Wardle 66). Wollstonecraft attempted to protect her mother by

throwing herself between her mother and raging father and by sleeping outside her mother’s door on nights when her father may have been in a violent mood

Gordon compares Father to a bully who is “the failure who picks on the vulnerable” (10)

Poor relationship with Mother

Wollstonecraft’s mother treated her severely and demanded obedience

Her mother forced her to sit silently even in the presence of others for three to four hours at a time

Wollstonecraft’s Philosophy of the Family as Presented in A Vindication

of the Right of Woman Parental Affections:

“Parents often love their children in the most brutal manner” (274)

“Affections must grow out of the habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy” (244)

Role of the Parents Relationship with parents should shape the child into a

principled and honorable citizen Against Blind Obedience to Parents

“Obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason” (246)

Natural Hierarchy Within the Family

One temporary natural hierarchy between parent and child

Reciprocal Obligations and Duties Parents must love their children and nurture their

physical, emotional and intellectual growth If these duties are fulfilled, the parent has the right

to respect from the child; if not, the child does not and should not respect the parent

Temporary “To subjugate a rational being to the mere will of

another, after he is of age to answer to society for his own conduct, is a most cruel and undue stretch of power” (245)

Wollstonecraft’s Relationship with her

brother Ned Wollstonecraft’s grandfather made her eldest brother, Ned, the sole heir of the family’s fortune completely leaving out the other Wollstonecraft siblings

Ned did not share the inheritance Wollstonecraft’s father squandered his money so he

took from his daughter’s dowries Letter to Jane Arden June 1779

“My father’s affairs were so embarrassed by his misconduct that he was obliged to take the fortune that was settled on us children; I very readily gave up my part; I have therefore nothing to expect” (Wardle 66)

Responsibility for Younger Siblings

Established the school at Newington Green Letter to Everina in January 1784

“If Ned makes us a little present of furniture it will be very acceptable but if he is prudent we must try to do without it” (Wardle 86)

Wollstonecraft “put her most sustained effort into her youngest brother and sister” (Gordon 161)

“When Everina returned from Paris, Mary continued to protect her” (Gordon 161).

Care of Youngest Brother Charles

Wollstonecraft got him a job in a law firm Wollstonecraft’s friend Johnson paid his debts Attempted to get him a job with the East India Company Wollstonecraft sent him to American to live with her

friends, the Barlows, and farm In a letter to George Blood in April 1789

“I would fain have made him a virtuous character and have improved his understanding at the same time - had I succeed[ed] I should have been amply reward[ed] - but he has disappointed me - disappointed me … I beg you if you have any love for me - try to make him exert himself - try to fix him in a situation or heaven knows into what vices he may sink!” (Gordon 162)

Primogeniture Inheritance is passed down through the eldest son only Wollstonecraft calls for a social revolution of the family

to overturn patriarchal hierarchies Wollstonecraft believes “the patriarchal family, with its

warped power struggles between husband and wife and brother and sister, perverts the growth of the natural affections and prevents them from developing into the virtues that maintain a stable and humane society” (Botting 142)

In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft argues “vicious or indolent people are always eager to profit by enforcing arbitrary privileges” (246)

Wollstonecraft Discusses the Problems of Primogeniture in A Vindication of the Rights of

Woman “Girls, who have been thus weakly educated, are often cruelly left by their parents without any provision; and, of course, are dependent on, not only the reason, but the bounty of their brothers” (141).

Wollstonecraft continues to explain that if the brothers are kind enough to provide their sisters with an equal share, “in this equivocal humiliating situation, a docile female may remain some time” (141)

However, when the brother marries, the sister “is viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an unnecessary burden on the benevolence of the master of the house, and his new partner” (141)

Bess’ Marriage to Bishop

Bess married Bishop in October 1782 They had a baby, Mary, on August 10, 1783 Marriage turned out to be very destructive for

Bess Possible sexual abuse or verbal tyranny

Mary’s Letters to Everina “Her ideas are all disjointed and a number of wild whims float on her imagination and

unconnected fall from her – something like strange dreams when judgement sleeps and fancy sports at a fine rate…She seems to think she has been very ill used – and in short, till I see some more favorable symptoms I shall only suppose that her malady has assumed a new and more distressing appearance—” Mary continues explaining that she will anxiously wait to see if Bess’s condition improves

“I don’t know what to do – Poor Eliza’s situation almost turns my brain—I can’t stay and see this continual misery—and to leave her to bear it by herself without any one to comfort her is still more distressing—I would do anything to rescue her from her present situation”

“How sincerely I do join with you in saying that if a person has common sense they cannot make one completely unhappy. But to attempt to lead or govern a weak mind is impossible it will ever press forward to what it wishes regardless of impediments and with a selfish eagerness believe what it desires practicable tho’ the contrary is as clear as the noon day—My spirits are hurried with listening to pros and cons and my head is so confused that I sometimes say no when I ought to say yes—My heart is almost broken with listening to B. while he reasons the case—I cannot insult him with advise – which he would never have wanted if he was capable of attending to it.”

Marriage Laws during the Period

Hardwicke Act (1753) “Designed to clarify the legality of marriage, had the effect

of tightening a wife’s bonds” (Gordon 11) “She had no right to her own property or earnings, nor to

her children, no grounds for divorce, and no recourse to physical protection in the home” (Gordon 11)

Basically a husband could do anything he wanted with his wife

A CENTURY PASSES BEFORE: Assaults Act (1853)

Could convict violent husbands New Matrimonial Court (1857)

Woman’s right to get out of an abusive marriage

Still to Research

Wollstonecraft’s opinions on Coverture in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Everina

“I am going to be the first of a new genus”

Personal Letter to her sister Woman’s Independence as it is

presented in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman