Family Ties

1
Family Ties

• An analysis of the influence of Mary
  Wollstonecrafts family life on her opinions
  regarding the model family and womens rights as
  she presents them in
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

2
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Published through good friend Joseph Johnson in
  1792
• One of the first works of feminist philosophy

3
Relationships

• Hierarchy within the family
• Duties and Obligations
• Primogeniture
• Coverture
• Womens Independence

• Parents
• Ned
• Bess
• Everina

4
Significance of Discovering this Link

• Previously uninvestigated
• Family life studied in relation to her novels,
  Mary A Fiction (1788) and The Wrongs of Woman
  (1798), her Original Stories from Real Life
  (1788), her Letters Written during a Short
  Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796),
  and her Letters to Imlay (1798)
• but NOT A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Impacts the interpretation of the work by adding
  a sense of urgency
• Problems in society, which Wollstonecraft aims to
  correct, affected and to some degree continue to
  affect REAL people

5
Marys Early Life

• Born on April 27, 1759 in London
• Second oldest of five siblings
• Baptized into the Anglican Church
• Father came from a family of prosperous weavers
• Father left manufacturing just before the height
  of the Industrial Revolution during which the
  manufacturing class gained great wealth

• Placing hope in the social flexibility of the
  revolutionary period, Wollstonecrafts father
  attempted to raise his position in society by
  settling on a farm and creating a life of leisure
  for himself
• Farm failed - her father turned to alcohol

6
Fathers Domestic Abuse

• Letter to Jane Arden in June 1779
• It is almost needless to tell you that my
  fathers violent temper and extravagant turn of
  mind, was the principal cause of my unhappiness
  and that of the rest of my family (Wardle 66)
• His passions were seldom directed at me, yet I
  suffered more than any of them (Wardle 66).
• Wollstonecraft attempted to protect her mother by
  throwing herself between her mother and raging
  father and by sleeping outside her mothers door
  on nights when her father may have been in a
  violent mood
• Gordon compares Father to a bully who is the
  failure who picks on the vulnerable (10)

7
Poor relationship with Mother

• Wollstonecrafts mother treated her severely and
  demanded obedience
• Her mother forced her to sit silently even in the
  presence of others for three to four hours at a
  time

8
Wollstonecrafts Philosophy of the Family as
Presented in A Vindication of the Right of Woman

• Parental Affections
• Parents often love their children in the most
  brutal manner (274)
• Affections must grow out of the habitual
  exercise of a mutual sympathy (244)
• Role of the Parents
• Relationship with parents should shape the child
  into a principled and honorable citizen
• Against Blind Obedience to Parents
• Obeying a parent only on account of his being a
  parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a
  slavish submission to any power but reason (246)

9
Natural Hierarchy Within the Family

• One temporary natural hierarchy between parent
  and child
• Reciprocal Obligations and Duties
• Parents must love their children and nurture
  their physical, emotional and intellectual growth
• If these duties are fulfilled, the parent has the
  right to respect from the child if not, the
  child does not and should not respect the parent
• Temporary
• To subjugate a rational being to the mere will
  of another, after he is of age to answer to
  society for his own conduct, is a most cruel and
  undue stretch of power (245)

10
Wollstonecrafts Relationship with her brother Ned

• Wollstonecrafts grandfather made her eldest
  brother, Ned, the sole heir of the familys
  fortune completely leaving out the other
  Wollstonecraft siblings
• Ned did not share the inheritance
• Wollstonecrafts father squandered his money so
  he took from his daughters dowries
• Letter to Jane Arden June 1779
• My fathers affairs were so embarrassed by his
  misconduct that he was obliged to take the
  fortune that was settled on us children I very
  readily gave up my part I have therefore nothing
  to expect (Wardle 66)

11
Responsibility for Younger Siblings

• Established the school at Newington Green
• Letter to Everina in January 1784
• If Ned makes us a little present of furniture it
  will be very acceptable but if he is prudent we
  must try to do without it (Wardle 86)
• Wollstonecraft put her most sustained effort
  into her youngest brother and sister (Gordon
  161)
• When Everina returned from Paris, Mary continued
  to protect her (Gordon 161).

12
Care of Youngest Brother Charles

• Wollstonecraft got him a job in a law firm
• Wollstonecrafts friend Johnson paid his debts
• Attempted to get him a job with the East India
  Company
• Wollstonecraft sent him to American to live with
  her friends, the Barlows, and farm
• In a letter to George Blood in April 1789
• I would fain have made him a virtuous character
  and have improved his understanding at the same
  time - had I succeeded I should have been amply
  rewarded - but he has disappointed me -
  disappointed me I beg you if you have any love
  for me - try to make him exert himself - try to
  fix him in a situation or heaven knows into what
  vices he may sink! (Gordon 162)

13
Primogeniture

• Inheritance is passed down through the eldest son
  only
• Wollstonecraft calls for a social revolution of
  the family to overturn patriarchal hierarchies
• Wollstonecraft believes the patriarchal family,
  with its warped power struggles between husband
  and wife and brother and sister, perverts the
  growth of the natural affections and prevents
  them from developing into the virtues that
  maintain a stable and humane society (Botting
  142)
• In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,
  Wollstonecraft argues vicious or indolent people
  are always eager to profit by enforcing arbitrary
  privileges (246)

14
Wollstonecraft Discusses the Problems of
Primogeniture in A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman

• Girls, who have been thus weakly educated, are
  often cruelly left by their parents without any
  provision and, of course, are dependent on, not
  only the reason, but the bounty of their
  brothers (141).
• Wollstonecraft continues to explain that if the
  brothers are kind enough to provide their sisters
  with an equal share, in this equivocal
  humiliating situation, a docile female may remain
  some time (141)
• However, when the brother marries, the sister is
  viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an
  unnecessary burden on the benevolence of the
  master of the house, and his new partner (141)

15
Bess Marriage to Bishop

• Bess married Bishop in October 1782
• They had a baby, Mary, on August 10, 1783
• Marriage turned out to be very destructive for
  Bess
• Possible sexual abuse or verbal tyranny

16
Marys Letters to Everina

• Her ideas are all disjointed and a number of
  wild whims float on her imagination and
  unconnected fall from her something like
  strange dreams when judgement sleeps and fancy
  sports at a fine rateShe seems to think she has
  been very ill used and in short, till I see
  some more favorable symptoms I shall only suppose
  that her malady has assumed a new and more
  distressing appearance Mary continues
  explaining that she will anxiously wait to see if
  Besss condition improves
• I dont know what to do Poor Elizas situation
  almost turns my brainI cant stay and see this
  continual miseryand to leave her to bear it by
  herself without any one to comfort her is still
  more distressingI would do anything to rescue
  her from her present situation
• How sincerely I do join with you in saying that
  if a person has common sense they cannot make one
  completely unhappy. But to attempt to lead or
  govern a weak mind is impossible it will ever
  press forward to what it wishes regardless of
  impediments and with a selfish eagerness believe
  what it desires practicable tho the contrary is
  as clear as the noon dayMy spirits are hurried
  with listening to pros and cons and my head is so
  confused that I sometimes say no when I ought to
  say yesMy heart is almost broken with listening
  to B. while he reasons the caseI cannot insult
  him with advise which he would never have
  wanted if he was capable of attending to it.

17
Marriage Laws during the Period

• Hardwicke Act (1753)
• Designed to clarify the legality of marriage,
  had the effect of tightening a wifes bonds
  (Gordon 11)
• She had no right to her own property or
  earnings, nor to her children, no grounds for
  divorce, and no recourse to physical protection
  in the home (Gordon 11)
• Basically a husband could do anything he wanted
  with his wife
• A CENTURY PASSES BEFORE
• Assaults Act (1853)
• Could convict violent husbands
• New Matrimonial Court (1857)
• Womans right to get out of an abusive marriage

18
Still to Research

• Wollstonecrafts opinions on Coverture in A
  Vindication of the Rights of Woman

19
Everina

• I am going to be the first of a new genus
• Personal Letter to her sister
• Womans Independence as it is presented in A
  Vindication of the Rights of Woman