An Analysis Of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

During the Age of Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft presented a radical essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, that shed light on the largest, underrepresented groups of the time, women. The essay voiced the inequalities women at the time faced and called upon Wollstonecraft’s audience to invoke a revolution for the rights of women. Through her writing, she presented a compelling argument that slowly allowed women to question their “place” in society and demand change to the British social order. While these changes did not happen quickly, her work sparked the feminist movements through its unique message and called upon women to demand equality through the Match Girls Strike and Women’s Suffrage

In addition to education, Wollstonecraft brings the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the reader’s attention because he claims that women should not feel independent, and they should be a man’s companion. “…In 1792 the British writer Mary Wollstonecraft directly confronts Rousseau’s views of women and their education…” This “initiated a debate that echoed throughout the centuries followed.” Even today, this debate is still prevalent among both young and old people.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman addresses the causality between a lack of education and a lack of reasonability. She advocates for virtue through reason, rather than virtue over reason. Wollstonecraft argues that the minimal freedom of women has limited their view on life, and thusly, their potential intelligence. In fact, she stipulates “all the difference that I can discern, arises from the superior advantage of liberty, which enables the former [man] to see more of life.” Through this greater exposure to the world, Wollstonecraft argues that man holds greater capacity for the development of a thoughtful mind. She extends this reasoning when asserts that a female who attempts to grow her intellect is quickly quashed through deflection to a life of domestic rules and behavior. Wollstonecraft asserts, “if they have natural sagacity it is turned too soon on life and manners.” In summary, this piece of literature contends that women are shaped into subservient individuals who lack the capacity for original thought and discourse. This is portrayed in her comparison of women to a soldier. “[T]hey may well be disciplined machines, but they seldom contain men under

Rory Miller once said, “The only defense against evil, violent people is good people who are more skilled at violence”. What he means by this is that everyone has a sense of violence in them, but some people choose not to express it, but under circumstances it’s a man eat man world. The prisoners in the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, were nice regular people before they were put in camps and at the beginning, but as time passed by they were being deprived of food and every human need, they started to change. They became more aggressive and violent. In certain situation people change, they will start worrying about themselves and only themselves.

In favor of educating women to end the inequality affecting both sexes, Wollstonecraft argues the deterioration of virtues is in result of the negligence of knowledge. According to Wollstonecraft “If women isn’t fitted by education to become a man’s companion, she will stop the process of knowledge” (Wollstonecraft 2). In other words, women who aren’t allowed to peruse an education that allows them to become as knowledgeable as a man will

Violence and war is notable throughout history. However, it is lazy to say that this proves humans are naturally violent. Rather than using nature as an excuse for those who chose to act violently it’s important we recognize that we have a choice to decide how we act. In Howard Zinn’s, “Violence and Human Nature” He shows that violence is not an instinct but that the environment in which they live in provokes them to act violently or peacefully depending on their choice (43). In City of God, a film concentrating on the gangs of Rio de Janeiro during the 1960’s to the 1980’s, specifically the township of Cidade de Deus, we are introduced to various characters who all make different choices under different motivations. Rocket, the little brother to a member of the Tender Trio, who are essentially the Robin Hood’s of the City of God, to act non-violently despite his environment and the influences around him.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a radical Enlightenment writer. In one of her most famous literatures, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft envisions a society founded upon reason. Wollstonecraft believes the only way society can progress through the inferiority between men and women is to allow them an equal education. Progress will only be made if all members in society are equally intelligent. And thus, reason must be the foundation of this intellect. Ultimately, these ideas, reason and progress, were major philosophies developing during the Enlightenment. Mary Wollstonecraft was an Enlightenment philosopher; advocating for the importance of reason and progress within society, support this

Though out history, humans have consistently committed horrific acts through war, terrorism, torture and other atrocities. Some people believe that society can prevent people from committing such horrific acts. However, contrary to the belief that brutality can disappear, the terrible acts by humans are not going to disappear because brutality is human nature. People are naturally cruel, and regardless of people 's effort or the environment, one is inclined to be brutal. In Maggie Nelson’s “Great Watch,” Nelson explains how people can be adapt to brutality. The people continually choose to be brutal when morality points to the contrary because people adapt the brutality, despite one is aware of the amoral actions. In Martha Stout’s “When

“Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control” (Pinker). This quote by Steven Pinker couldn’t be more true. The nature of man is a constant fight between good and evil. However, people can be compelled to act against their instincts with the request from another.

In Steven Pinker’s book “The better angels of our nature”, he states that violence has been in decline over long stretches of time with offering psychology, brain science, history, moral philosophy, and interdisciplinary breadth. These sufficient evidences convince us that “we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence.” In these more than 800 pages book, a mass of statistics and information support his persuasive explanations why this has happened. As he emphasizes, empathy, self-control, the moral sense and reason are our better angels which cause the decline of violence. Besides, he provides us the motives for violence- predation, dominance, revenge, sadism and ideology with a huge range of evidence and the historical

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was born during the age of enlightenment in the 18th century, is one of the most prominent feminists in women’s history. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman led her to become one of the first feminists, advocating for the rights of women. Born in a time where women’s education was neither prominent nor important, Wollstonecraft was raised with very little education. However, events in her life influenced her to begin writing, such as the way her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft treated her mother, “into a state of wearied servitude” (Kries,Steven)1. In 1792, she published Vindication on the Rights of Woman, which is one of the most prominent feminist pieces to date. This book is considered a reply to

The history of human nature has been bloody, painful, and even destructive. Nonetheless, before understanding their environments humans used to kill each other based on their own mindset on the ideal of violence, and what it actually meant. Pinker describes narratives of violent acts from the past, that today are foreign to us. He gives us a tour of the historical human violence and how the violence in human nature has changed throughout time. The main idea from Pinker’s book,“The Better Angels of Our Nature ', is “for all the dangers we face today, the dangers of yesterday were even worse.” He provides its readers with explicit violent stories beginning from 8000 BCE to now, and describes how violence has evolved from a blood lost to more of a peaceful existence.

As one of the earliest feminist writers, Mary Wollstonecraft faced a daunting audience of critics ready to dispel her cry for the rights of women. Her powerful argument calling for equality in a society dominated by men was strong, and her ideas withstood a lot of criticism to become one of the most important feminist texts. Her argument was simple and illustrates a solution to the inequality in society. The foundation of this argument is the idea of education and how independent thought is necessary to live a virtuous and moral life. In the present state of society, women are seen as inferior to men and held in a state of ignorance. The worst effect of this

A wise man once said “Man is only great when he acts from passion.” When you hear the word passion, the first thing that might come to your mind is something related to love, and you’re not entirely wrong. According to Merriam- Webster’s dictionary, passion is defined as a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something or a strong feeling (such as anger) that causes you to act in a dangerous way. All in all, it is a strong feeling, be it happiness, sadness, anger or liberality. You can be passionate about many things such as love, sports, food, or intimacy. However, it can also mean having a strong yearning for something.

Therefore, for Wollstonecraft, the lack of education is the primary concern as providing women with an education at a young age helps in ending the helplessness of females. In Wollstonecraft’s opinion, the most perfect education that will enable women to attain virtue and become independent is the exercise of understanding (17). Also, Wollstonecraft does not call a person virtuous unless that person’s virtues were attained from the exercise of reason (17). However, it is important to note that this view in regard to the exercise of reason is Rousseau’s opinion of men, but Wollstonecraft extends this view to women and she makes it clear that women have been “drawn out of their sphere by false refinement” (17).