Analyzing Vindication of Mary Wollstonecraft - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of Mary Wollstonecrafts Vindication Introduction The vindication of the rights of woman is a most powerful and advanced piece, highlighting how women’s rights are being violated. Throughout the book, it would be meaningless to follow different varieties of sorrows, cares, and mean-nesses into which women are plunged by the widespread opinion, which states that they were created to feel rather than to reason. Women are agreeably weak. They are made by this agreeable weakness to be entirely dependent on man for protection. In addition, women also depend on man for advice (Wollstonecraft, 1992). Women are also viewed as being fragile. Fragile in the sense that the look up to any man for any comfort. In most cases, women cling to their support like a parasite, desperately demanding for help. Men, therefore, extend their arms or lift up their voices to guard the lovely woman from the jump of a rat, or the frown of a wizened cow; a mousewould be a serious threat. A Vindication of the rights of women is about fighting for the rights of women and their education. Throughout the book, it is evident that the weaker sex of mankind also has natural talents and should not be placed into competition with men and their abilities. Human nature is essentially good and is able to change its attitude towards prevailing situations on women. One of the main points in the book states that marriage should not be based on desire (Wollstonecraft, 1992). On degradation, the book is critical in blaming the male point of view and their conception of the society. Women should not be viewed as wives or sensible mothers but pleasing mistresses instead. Wollstonecraft was aware that could not instill a culture of independence from women the same way she was, she was determined to develop wiser and more independent women. Tyranny: To put forward the tyranny of man. Arguments have been put forward that are aimed at proving that men are superior to women. The two sexes are seen as being different from each other and that women are inferior. Women are not expected to possess enough strength of mind so as to be able to have virtue. From birth, women are told to take advice from their mothers (Wollstonecraft, 2009). On degradation, Wollstonecraft says that the society views women as being naturally weak women need rational education before they can be judged moral beings; if they were regarded primarily as sexual, they could not be fully human. Discrimination against women can only be remedied by the cultivation of female intellect, however, intellectual equality still need to be proven. Many people in the society associated women with reaction, darkness, and superstition. They tended to see their enlightenment in gender term of overcoming feminine darkness. Women would indeed abandon enlightenment if they were allowed to rest ignorant, thereby hindering the progress of knowledge and virtue in general (Wollstonecraft, 2009). Inequality between men and women has its root solely in the abuse of power, and all the efforts that have been made to excuse it are vain. Inequality is dangerous even to the party in whose favor it works. Wollstonecraft believed in individual progress, a sense that with some changes, everyone including women could improve. Women, she argued, were human before they were feminine and the soul was unsexed. For every human being, this life should be a preparation for the next, not for marriage. The society can never be progress if women were kept backward. Presently and in the past years, women had the vices of any discriminated group, such as slaves. Inequality of power in the society and home corrupted both men and women (Lopston, 1998). Consequently, she says that the common beliefs, that with a few simple principles, the imperfect nature of man, the equality of individuals, and the natural right of each to determine his or her own destiny, the ignorance of society and the oppressive nature of government would be harmful to the society. Feminism has been linked to the general struggle for political and social reform, arguing that the rights of women and the tyranny of man, king, husband, and the hereditary nature of the society, must stop in the name of reason that serves the interest of both man and woman. The rights of a woman were also a plea to give equality of opportunity to women. She advocated for a new curriculum for both sexes. Wollstonecraft had the dissenting belief in science and the discipline of factual knowledge. The type of education she advocated for was a mixture of information and rational skills. According to her, women should aim at being good rational mothers and good citizens and so fulfill their duties to themselves and God (Cracium, 2002). In the rights of woman, a sense of self is preferred to seductiveness and there is little room for sexual activity in the energetic life. Sexuality is dependent upon the level of appetitive that brings men and women together. It is also viewed as a distasteful activity that weakens the spirit. It should only be used for protection. Wollstonecraft was accused in the eighteenth century for her advocacy of sexual openness. Later in the twentieth century, she would be mocked for her tough views on sexuality as desire leading to harmful dependence. Wollstonecraft praises adult masculine shrewdness, while giving example of the desire to be desired. In addition, she refers to the body of a woman as a dish for every male glutton to eat of (Lopston, 1998). At the end of 19th century, working class women also had a chance to attend school. However, their educational standard never marched the same quality as for men. If parents had the choice to enroll their daughters to school, their education would only be based on a very low level, even if girl were members of the upper class. The idea was whether women needed to be educated at all. Girls were expected to stick and fulfill their traditional tasks, which were majorly based in the family. Later, girls were allowed to join colleges and classes for women at different universities were established (Wollstonecraft, 2009). Families of the working class needed their children as a helping hand to earn a living and to finance their costs of living. Therefore, sending them to school was so important. Schools differed not only in education, but also in the students attending these schools, because most of them were specially formed for the different social classes. Some schools raised high fees which poor parents could not afford (Cracium, 2002). Another interesting aspect for discrimination against women would be that most parents drew their attention to finding a suitable husband for their daughters. This meant that he should have money and a good reputation. Girls were therefore trained to be a good mother and housewife. Education was therefore as well designed to meet men’s needs for a suitable woman. Thus, marriage represented permanently problems for women. In addition, their property went over to their men and women became more or less the property and slave of the husband (Smith and Carroll, 2009). Wollstonecraft had various attacks on customary, communal, and hierarchical forms of the economy, social structure, culture and state. She was majorly concerned with the rights of women. The sovereign subject of the modern world was usually male. However, feminist movements have claimed inclusion in the modern liberal state, calling for appropriate reforms in the society, culture, and state constitutions (Cracium, 2002). The culture of sensibility was both important and problematic in the formation of Wollstonecraft’s politics. Meaning in her politics was drawn from social subjectivity in opposition to customary and communal forms of identity as well as economic and social relations. This was an important moment in the effort to recover women, as subjects from destructive history for a future that would be better since it included, at last, women and the feminine. The work of Wollstonecraft was to exemplify the capacity of women to be liberal subjects and to insist that the liberal state would be ill-founded if women were not so recognized (Smith and Carroll, 2009). Men have entered into contracts for certain purposes, the most important of which is, the producing and rearing of children to maturity. Each man burdens a woman to his establishment, and calls it a contract. A contact implies assent of both the contracting parties. A contract giving all power, arbitrary will and enjoyment to one side only. Many men, use law, superstition, and opinion to command women in marriage and they obey. The happiness of both is sacrificed. Not only does the woman obey; the rule of man demands another sacrifice. Woman must cast nature, or feign to cast it, from her breast. Women are not allowed to appear to desire, or feel. The entirety of her education is dedicated to training her to be obedient for the sake of men’s sensual gratification, she is not allowed even to wish for any gratification for herself. Women must have no desires; they must always yield and must submit as a matter of duty, not response upon their equals for the sake of happiness (Wollstonecraft, 2009). The dependence of a woman in marriage depends on man; his slave for what nature has implanted as the most innocent and useful of human desires. From the balance of mere sexual feelings, the dependence of a woman on a man is seen as being more important. Conclusion From this discussion, it is evident that Wollstonecraft was majorly concerned with feminist politics and the demand for women’s rights. Feminism has now become part of ordinary social and political discourse. Feminism entails a variety of widely differing approaches and is somehow concerned with equality. Women must be viewed as being equal to men in term of socio-political dimensions of the society. Those socio-economic as well as political structures in the society that are likely to discriminate against women must be avoided. In most countries, constitutional reforms have been enacted to ensure that women too have equal opportunities in life. Most women in the world by 1960 still depended primarily on their husbands earning’s. Today, the livelihood of women has changed. Majority of women rely primarily on their own earning. This is due to constant advocacy of women to be given equal opportunities in education as well as employment. In addition, the transformation of women tasks and labor has created a new pool of time and money; few of these gains have come from men. The problems facing women today are much like those confronting earlier groups of men when they moved off the land. They too found their wages insufficient and old arrangements f care no longer necessary. However, their turn to work for wages brought struggles forcing their employers and the state to take on the greater share of the costs of family maintenance. Similarly, women’s turn from household to wage labor has also given them new resources to demand more of the wealth they are producing, and new commitments from men, employers, and the state to the tasks of care that remain. References Cracium, A. (2002). A Routledge literary sourcebook on Mary Wollstonecraft’s a vindication of the rights of woman. London: Routledge. Lopston, P. (1998). The readings of human nature. London, Broadview press. Smith, H. and Carrol, B. (2000). Women’s political and social thought: an anthropology. New York: Indiana university press. Wollstonecraft, M. (2009). A vindication of the rights of woman: An authoritative text backgrounds and contexts criticisms. New York: W.W Norton. Wollstonecraft, M. (1992). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Extract. Ed. Mirian Brody. Toronto: Penguin Books. Read More