Ancient Roman technology

For much of her adult life, the self-educated Wollstonecraft was an advocate for social and educational equality for women. In 1784 she founded a girls’ school in London, though it closed after several years. In Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life (1787), she argued for the importance of educating girls. During this time Wollstonecraft became active with Dissenters (also known as Nonconformists), liberal Protestants who did not conform to the rules of the Church of England. In December 1789 she wrote a positive review of the Reverend Richard Price’s speech “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country” for the periodical Analytical Review. A prominent Dissenter and noted philosopher, Price talked favourably of the ongoing French Revolution.

However, British statesman Edmund Burke subsequently criticized Price’s speech and the revolution in his political pamphlet Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to That Event (1790). Burke also endorsed traditional institutions and inherited positions. In defense of Price, Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), in which she dismantled Burke’s argument and defended Enlightenment ideals of progress, individualism, and the importance of reason. The work was hugely popular, and Wollstonecraft became well known in both England and France.

Summary What did Mary Wollstonecraft write about in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman? What did Mary Wollstonecraft write about in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?See all videos for this article In 1791 Wollstonecraft expanded on the themes from that work with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this powerful treatise, which was published the following year, she argued, with both passion and wit, that the education women received was designed to make them merely glittering ornaments in the lives of men—an undignified way to spend one’s life and not conducive to developing critical thinking skills. According to Wollstonecraft, this inadequate education impeded women’s intellectual development, trapped them in limited societal roles, and led to them living constrained, unhappy lives.

As an Enlightenment thinker, Wollstonecraft had faith in reason, individualism, self-determination, and the natural rights doctrine, and she thought that women and men were the same intellectually and spiritually. She was angered by how women were educated to believe that the most important thing they could be was beautiful and that the most important thing they could do was marry and serve their husbands. Men, on the other hand, were educated to think and create in their chosen professions, with marriage and family being lesser considerations. She called marriage a “legal prostitution,” since it was only by marriage that women could acquire a secure economic future for themselves and their children, as their inadequate education prepared them for nothing other than being wives. Wollstonecraft’s anger at the unjust treatment of women can be felt in many sections of the work, as in her description of the role women were expected to play in men’s lives: women, she wrote, were “created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it must jingle in his ears, whenever, dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused.”

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects With rights come duties, Wollstonecraft argued, but if women’s natural rights were not respected, society could not expect them to fulfill duties in a way that was complementary to living a virtuous life. Instead of education bent on bestowing “charm” and “refinement,” girls should receive an education in critical thinking and reason. According to Wollstonecraft, this would allow them to think rationally, to develop their own interests, and to be less easily fooled into being the playthings of men. It would also enable girls to look after their souls, because with reason they would be able to tell right from wrong instead of having to depend on others to make those determinations.

Wollstonecraft advocated for an improved educational curriculum and for the government to establish a national educational system that girls and boys would attend together. A proper education would treat women as fully human—the equals of men—and would equip them to be better wives, mothers, and citizens, Wollstonecraft asserted. Women’s sense of self-worth would come from learning and the application of reason, not from their appearance. When women had agency, and were therefore happier, society would improve.

Wollstonecraft appealed for the equal treatment of women in other areas besides education. She supported suffrage for women, writing “…for I really think that women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without having any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.” She also advocated for women to be allowed to train for and enter numerous professions, including medicine, nursing, and business. Men, and society at large, would benefit from the full inclusion of women in the public sphere, she maintained. Not only would society have the benefits of women’s contributions, but, since they would now be able to support themselves, women would be able to marry out of true affection rather than for economic interest. Marriage, she said, should be based neither on finances nor on appearances but on friendship.

Reception and influence The publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was met with largely favourable reviews, and it became a bestseller. In later years, however, the work drew condemnation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the radical changes that Wollstonecraft proposed would be a long time coming. However, her work had significant influence on the women’s rights movements in Great Britain and the United States. American women’s rights advocates—notably Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Fuller—were especially inspired by A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Karen Sottosanti

Mary Wollstonecraft Table of Contents Introduction & Top Questions Fast Facts Mary Wollstonecraft summary Facts & Related Content Quotes Top Questions What is Mary Wollstonecraft best known for? When did Mary Wollstonecraft get married? What did Mary Wollstonecraft do for a living? Read Next Feminism: From Ancient Rome to the Women’s March Media Videos Images More More Articles On This Topic Additional Reading Contributors Article History Related Biographies Samuel Richardson, detail of an oil painting by J. Highmore; in the National Portrait Gallery, London Samuel Richardson English novelist Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Bowen British author Iris Murdoch Iris Murdoch British writer and philosopher J.R.R. Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien English author See All Home Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists L-Z Mary Wollstonecraft English author

Alternate titles: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Written and fact-checked by Last Updated: Feb 22, 2023 • Article History Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft See all media Born: April 27, 1759 London England Died: September 10, 1797 (aged 38) London England Notable Works: “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” “Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark” “Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman” Notable Family Members: spouse William Godwin daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Subjects Of Study: equality women Top Questions Why was Mary Wollstonecraft important? What is Mary Wollstonecraft best known for? When did Mary Wollstonecraft get married? What did Mary Wollstonecraft do for a living? Summary Read a brief summary of this topic Mary Wollstonecraft, married name Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, (born April 27, 1759, London, England—died September 10, 1797, London), English writer and passionate advocate of educational and social equality for women. She outlined her beliefs in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), considered a classic of feminism.

The daughter of a farmer, Wollstonecraft taught school and worked as a governess, experiences that inspired her views in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). In 1788 she began working as a translator for the London publisher Joseph Johnson, who published several of her works, including the novel Mary: A Fiction (1788). Her mature work on woman’s place in society is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which calls for women and men to be educated equally.

Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society. Britannica Quiz Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction? In 1792 Wollstonecraft left England to observe the French Revolution in Paris, where she lived with an American, Captain Gilbert Imlay. In the spring of 1794 she gave birth to a daughter, Fanny. The following year, distraught over the breakdown of her relationship with Imlay, she attempted suicide.

Wollstonecraft returned to London to work again for Johnson and joined an influential radical group, which gathered at his home and included William Godwin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Holcroft, William Blake, and, after 1793, William Wordsworth. In 1796 she began a liaison with Godwin, and on March 29, 1797, Mary being pregnant, they were married. The marriage was happy but brief; Mary died 11 days after the birth of her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who became a novelist best known as the author of Frankenstein. Among Wollstonecraft’s late notable works are Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796), a travelogue with a sociological and philosophical bent, and Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman (1798), a posthumously published unfinished work that is a novelistic sequel to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the trailblazing works of feminism. Published in 1792, Wollstonecraft’s work argued that the educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable. She posited that an educational system that allowed girls the same advantages as boys would result in women who would be not only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers in many professions. Other early feminists had made similar pleas for improved education for women, but Wollstonecraft’s work was unique in suggesting that the betterment of women’s status be effected through such political change as the radical reform of national educational systems. Such change, she concluded, would benefit all society.

What did Mary Wollstonecraft write about in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman? What did Mary Wollstonecraft write about in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?See all videos for this article The publication of Vindication caused considerable controversy but failed to bring about any immediate reforms. From the 1840s, however, members of the incipient American and European women’s movements resurrected some of the book’s principles. It was a particular influence on American women’s rights pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Fuller.

The life of Wollstonecraft has been the subject of several biographies, beginning with her husband’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798, reissued 2001, in an edition edited by Pamela Clemit and Gina Luria Walker). Those written in the 19th century tended to emphasize the scandalous aspects of her life and not her work. With the renewed interest in women’s rights beginning in the later 20th century, she again became the subject of several books, including The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (2003), assembled by Janet Todd, and Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (2015), by Charlotte Gordon.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

English literature Table of Contents Introduction The Old English period The early Middle English period The later Middle English and early Renaissance periods The Renaissance period: 1550–1660 The Restoration The 18th century The Romantic period The post-Romantic and Victorian eras The 20th century The 21st century Fast Facts Related Content Read Next 12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written” Quizzes 10 British Poets: A Quiz Poets and Poetry (Part Two) Quiz The Life and Works of English Authors Media Videos Images Audio More More Articles On This Topic Additional Reading Contributors Article History Home Literature Literatures of the World English literature

Written by , , See All Fact-checked by Last Updated: Mar 2, 2023 • Article History Beowulf Beowulf See all media Key People: John Newton Simon Armitage Colin MacInnes Abdulrazak Gurnah David Walliams Related Topics: American literature Canadian literature Australian literature New Zealand literature Cornish literature English literature, the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles (including Ireland) from the 7th century to the present day. The major literatures written in English outside the British Isles are treated separately under American literature, Australian literature, Canadian literature, and New Zealand literature.

English literature has sometimes been stigmatized as insular. It can be argued that no single English novel attains the universality of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace or the French writer Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Yet in the Middle Ages the Old English literature of the subjugated Saxons was leavened by the Latin and Anglo-Norman writings, eminently foreign in origin, in which the churchmen and the Norman conquerors expressed themselves. From this combination emerged a flexible and subtle linguistic instrument exploited by Geoffrey Chaucer and brought to supreme application by William Shakespeare. During the Renaissance the renewed interest in Classical learning and values had an important effect on English literature, as on all the arts; and ideas of Augustan literary propriety in the 18th century and reverence in the 19th century for a less specific, though still selectively viewed, Classical antiquity continued to shape the literature. All three of these impulses derived from a foreign source, namely the Mediterranean basin. The Decadents of the late 19th century and the Modernists of the early 20th looked to continental European individuals and movements for inspiration. Nor was attraction toward European intellectualism dead in the late 20th century, for by the mid-1980s the approach known as structuralism, a phenomenon predominantly French and German in origin, infused the very study of English literature itself in a host of published critical studies and university departments. Additional influence was exercised by deconstructionist analysis, based largely on the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Further, Britain’s past imperial activities around the globe continued to inspire literature—in some cases wistful, in other cases hostile. Finally, English literature has enjoyed a certain diffusion abroad, not only in predominantly English-speaking countries but also in all those others where English is the first choice of study as a second language.

English literature is therefore not so much insular as detached from the continental European tradition across the Channel. It is strong in all the conventional categories of the bookseller’s list: in Shakespeare it has a dramatist of world renown; in poetry, a genre notoriously resistant to adequate translation and therefore difficult to compare with the poetry of other literatures, it is so peculiarly rich as to merit inclusion in the front rank; English literature’s humour has been found as hard to convey to foreigners as poetry, if not more so—a fact at any rate permitting bestowal of the label “idiosyncratic”; English literature’s remarkable body of travel writings constitutes another counterthrust to the charge of insularity; in autobiography, biography, and historical writing, English literature compares with the best of any culture; and children’s literature, fantasy, essays, and journals, which tend to be considered minor genres, are all fields of exceptional achievement as regards English literature. Even in philosophical writings, popularly thought of as hard to combine with literary value, thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell stand comparison for lucidity and grace with the best of the French philosophers and the masters of Classical antiquity.

Hatter engaging in rhetoric illustration 26. by Sir John Tenniel for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice in Wonderland by British author Lewis Carroll. Cropped from source file asset 166534/ic code bolse1690 Mad Hatter tea party Britannica Quiz The Life and Works of English Authors Some of English literature’s most distinguished practitioners in the 20th century—from Joseph Conrad at its beginning to V.S. Naipaul and Tom Stoppard at its end—were born outside the British Isles. What is more, none of the aforementioned had as much in common with his adoptive country as did, for instance, Doris Lessing and Peter Porter (two other distinguished writer-immigrants to Britain), both having been born into a British family and having been brought up on British Commonwealth soil.

On the other hand, during the same period in the 20th century, many notable practitioners of English literature left the British Isles to live abroad: James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, and Anthony Burgess. In one case, that of Samuel Beckett, this process was carried to the extent of writing works first in French and then translating them into English.

Even English literature considered purely as a product of the British Isles is extraordinarily heterogeneous, however. Literature actually written in those Celtic tongues once prevalent in Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales—called the “Celtic Fringe”—is treated separately (see Celtic literature). Yet Irish, Scots, and Welsh writers have contributed enormously to English literature even when they have written in dialect, as the 18th-century poet Robert Burns and the 20th-century Scots writer Alasdair Gray have done. In the latter half of the 20th century, interest began also to focus on writings in English or English dialect by recent settlers in Britain, such as Afro-Caribbeans and people from Africa proper, the Indian subcontinent, and East Asia.

Even within England, culturally and historically the dominant partner in the union of territories comprising Britain, literature has been as enriched by strongly provincial writers as by metropolitan ones. Another contrast more fruitful than not for English letters has been that between social milieus, however much observers of Britain in their own writings may have deplored the survival of class distinctions. As far back as medieval times, a courtly tradition in literature cross-fertilized with an earthier demotic one. Shakespeare’s frequent juxtaposition of royalty in one scene with plebeians in the next reflects a very British way of looking at society. This awareness of differences between high life and low, a state of affairs fertile in creative tensions, is observable throughout the history of English literature.