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E212: British Literature since 1760 Mary Wollstonecraft Study Questions Alfred J. Drake. Office: 423 University Hall A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) 1. Describe Wollstonecraft's conception of human nature -- what are the main human faculties or characteristics, and how should they be ranked and otherwise related? 2. How does Wollstonecraft use key terms such as nature, reason, understanding, virtue, sensibility, love, etc., throughout our selection? 3. On 168, Wollstonecraft opposes "virtue" to "elegance." How does she define virtue, and how is it opposed to elegance? 4. How does Wollstonecraft's style and manner of argumentation generate authority for her as a writer addressing inequities in gender relations? 5. On 169 and elsewhere, what does Wollstonecraft suggest is the key to men's continuing domination over women? What is the basis of men's claims to superior status over women, and how does she undermine that basis? 6. What is Wollstonecraft's criticism of Milton and Rousseau on 170-71 and elsewhere? What does she argue that they misunderstood in treating of relations between men and women? 7. Why is education so important a concept to Wollstonecraft on 172 and elsewhere? You might relate this question to her view of human nature. 8. Explain Wollstonecraft's analogies between women and soldiers on 173-74 and between women and the wealthy on 186. What do such comparisons allow Wollstonecraft to argue about the "naturalization" of perceived gender differences? 9. On 179, how does Wollstonecraft deal with the concept of "love"? How does romantic and physical love get in the way of a woman's development? 10. On 183, in what sense might Wollstonecraft be said to ask only for a "fair trial" for women to demonstrate their true capabilities? How does this stance allow her to maintain a scientific (i.e. empiricist) position with regard to alleged gender differences? 11. On 185, Wollstonecraft argues that women's current social subordination by no means proves their inferiority to men. How does she support her argument? 12. On 187-88, how does Wollstonecraft compare arguments made against educating the poor to arguments against educating women? What theoretical point does this comparison allow her to make? Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1795) (for those who intend to read this unassigned selection) 13. How does Wollstonecraft apply the analytical method she promotes in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to her experiences in the Scandinavian countries she visited at the behest of her lover Gilbert Imlay? 14. What are the observations you consider most important, and what immediate event in the narrative seems to have given rise to them? Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2. Seventh edition. New York: Norton, 2000.
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