Group 3, Vindication and Other Works

Mary Wollstonecraft, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, uses references to works and authors we have previously looked at in this class to enhance her message concerning the suppressed state women were (and some may argue still are) in at the time. Wollstonecraft uses references to Milton in Chapter 2 of her work, calling attention to his work Paradise Lost. Wollstonecraft glosses a quote from the work where he “asserts the authority of man over woman on the grounds that, ‘for contemplation he and valor formed, for softness she and sweet attractive grace’’ (102). She uses this particular quote to point to man’s habit of believing women are deprived of souls and were only created by “sweet attractive grace, and docile blind obedience to gratify the senses of man” (102). Wollstonecraft points out the wrongdoings of men when they insult women by thinking they are domesticated and child-like; furthermore, she does not like the term “innocent” for women, for it implies weakness in the sex. Another author we have examined is Alexander Pope, whose “Of the Characters of Women” is also mentioned throughout Wollstonecraft’s Vindication. In his work, he mentions that women are “fine by defect, and delicately weak” (119)! Wollstonecraft uses this quote to sum up the feelings of all males, that women were “created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness” (119). Using another popular male quotation, she once again proves her disgust for the current state of women created by men, and points out the implied weakness her sex has obtained. She also points out how degrading these terms are when used to describe women, who she believes deserve more credit and understanding as a sex.