Historical Figure
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797
English writer and philosopher (1759–1797)
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Biography
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher best known for her advocacy of women's rights. Until the late twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships, received more attention than her writing. Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.
Timeline
The story of Mary Wollstonecraft, told in moments.
Publishes Thoughts on the Education of Daughters and becomes part of Joseph Johnson's radical publishing circle in London. She teaches herself French and German. She reviews books. She argues with everyone. Thomas Paine and William Blake are her friends.
Publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She argues that women aren't naturally inferior to men but merely uneducated. Educate them equally, she says, and watch what happens. The book is praised and mocked in equal measure.
Gives birth to her daughter Mary, who'll grow up to write Frankenstein. The delivery goes wrong. Infection sets in. She asks for William Godwin, her husband.
Dies of septicemia at 38, eleven days after giving birth. Godwin publishes her unfinished works and a memoir that reveals her love affairs and suicide attempts. He means it as a tribute. The scandal destroys her reputation for a century.
In Their Own Words (20)
Affection requires a firmer foundation than sympathy, and few people have a principle of action sufficiently stable to produce rectitude of feeling; for in spite of all the arguments I have heard to justify deviations from duty, I am persuaded that even the most spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle than weak people are willing to allow.
Letter 17, 1796
Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are formed.
Letter 23, 1796
Executions, far from being useful examples to the survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Besides, the fear of an ignominious death, I believe, never deterred anyone from the commission of a crime, because in committing it the mind is roused to activity about present circumstances.
Letter 19, 1796
It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.
Letter 22, 1796
The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized.
Letter 19, 1796
Artifacts (15)
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