Mary Wollstonecraft & Early Feminism

The previous post focuses on the life of William Godwin, briefly mentioning the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft. Therefore, I suppose it is suitable to look at her life, works, and launching of early feministic thought.

In our text, there is a small biography, hinting at Wollstonecraft’s relationships with her sister, friends, fellow authors and artists, and subsequently, with William Godwin. In terms of marriage, the text notes that it is interesting that they married, especially because of their proclaimed thoughts on marriage and its relation with identity and bond.

In Wollstonecraft’s life, literature had become something of a constant and she came to depend on it in order to express her frustration and overall disturbance with women’s social and political position at that time (mainly the latter half of the 18^th century). Her essays concentrated on her disapproval of the male-dominated system that had a history of running England. In stressing equal opportunity for both men and women, Wollstonecraft was physically proposing something that was mostly unheard of at this time; women were not writing about this topic, and if they were, it wasn’t with the same language that Wollstonecraft had come to master. However, her words were radical and her name became tainted in her time and for a short time, afterwards. She was not given the high regard that she has earned in modern times.

Looking at a few sites, the History Guide does a nice job organizing her works as well as giving her credit in her efforts to “bridge the gap between mankind's present circumstances and ultimate perfection.” Her French Revolution knowledge is also mentioned. In 2002, the BBC did a special on Wollstonecraft entitled “Mary Wollstonecraft: A Speculative and Dissenting Spirit.” Janet Todd’s in depth exploration of her life and her influences is fascinating because it brings to light new ideas of Wollstonecraft’s reason behind her writing. Her traveling brought about a different understanding of the way that the world worked, inspiring her to write about these injustices – mainly on the injustice of women’s rights and their inferior place in society.

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/wollstonecraft.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml

Mary Wollstonecraft’s legacy is one of debate, but ultimately helping to define the root of published feministic thought and dispute.

William Godwin (1756-1836)

Because we are all most likely still standing in the Flunk Day’s shadow, it seems appropriate to take a closer look at William Godwin who was considered the father of philosophical anarchism. While our book goes into this slightly, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy goes into this further.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/godwin/

Mark Philp, the author of the page explains how Godwin thought that politics and government in general only served to cause more dependency on a system that can offer very little. This is turn causes the citizens who follow to have no understanding of why they follow the laws and practices of their government. Godwin did not believe in a giant revolt or uprising to get his point across, but rather the spreading of knowledge from individual person to person, which would ensure a real grasp of the concepts.

Although our book only focuses in on Godwin’s “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice” (1793), this site goes into more detail about his other works as well as giving a very thorough biography that goes into much more detail than just where he lived and when he wrote. Oddly enough, there was a period of time when Godwin wrote children’s books under the name Edward Baldwin when he wasn’t writing books about politics or philosophy. He had a wide range when we take into consideration that he went from writing “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice” to writing fables and bible stories for children.

This biography also focuses in on Godwin’s relationship with Mary Wollstonecraft as well as his own daughter Mary and son-in-law Percy Shelley. It is interesting to note that although Percy Shelley and Mary’s elopement caused the beginning of hardships in Godwin’s life, this did not stop him from taking advantage of the money his son-in-law had at his disposal.

This site also has an equally thorough biography and explanation of both Mary Wollstonecraft by Sylvana Tomaselli that would be just as beneficial to scroll through.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wollstonecraft/

Response # 4