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Margaret Fuller Influences

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“Where I make an impression it must be by being most myself.” Margaret Fuller to her editor John Wiley, 1846. Margaret Fuller wanted her thoughts and opinions to be what remained of her, though many commented on her as a person than her as a literary critic and author. Fuller was thought to be a lot of ‘firsts’ the first feminist, the first woman transcendentalist, the first radical women thinker of our time and so on and so on. Even though her works were censored and altered, she had many influences including her father, life experiences, and other authors. In the first place, Fuller’s early years put her in position for what her life later on would offer her. The Fuller family was known for nobility and intelligence and Margaret would be no exception. Her father, Timothy Fuller, taught her to read and write by the time she was three and a half. Margaret was put through a rigorous regimen of boys schooling, she was never a loud to pick up reading material of the feminine type. She later learned Latin and began translating some simple works of Virgil. Through her father’s harsh schooling she never became the feminine girl her mother wanted. Fuller realized she would never be like the other girls. She blamed her father for troubles she experienced later in life. She wrote a cryptic note at the age of ten which read, “On 23 May 1810, was born one foredoomed to sorrow and pain, and like others to have misfortune.” Moreover, Fuller started to suffer from

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