Things to Consider:

• Historical Context, esp. French Revolution
• Mirrors, Lamps, and Scales
• Education and Conduct Literature
• Religion
• Slavery and Other Conditions of Marginalization (See Essay )

• In what ways was Vindication of the Rights of Woman unprecedented?

• What does Wollstonecraft present as the main argument of her book?

• What are the consequences of the "false system of education" that Wollstonecraft perceives in her society?
• Explain:  "The minds of woman are enfeebled by false refinement" (234).

235:

• Why does Wollstonecraft's text focus on middle-class women (see 235n)?

• What, according to Wollstonecraft, is "the only way women can rise in the world" (236)?

• Explain:  "Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience" (241).

246:

• Explain: "Love, from its very nature, must be transitory" (246).

249:

• Explain: "Gentleness, docility, and a spaniel-like affection are. . . recommended as the cardinal virtues of the sex" (249).

251:

• Explain: "I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage" (251).

• Describe the position of governess during Wollstonecraft's time.

• What, according to the editors, are the main arguments of Wollstonecraft's book?

• What, according to the editors, was significant about Wollstonecraft's marriage to William Godwin?

• Explain what Wollstonecraft says about duty's connection to understanding.
• Explain Wollstonecraft's comparison of women and slaves.

• Explain Wollstonecraft's references to "legitimate rights" and "illicit privileges"(233).

• What ambition should women "cherish," according to Wollstonecraft?
• What are "manly virtues" (234)?

• Explain: "Perhaps the source of false refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great" (235).
• Explain:  "Elegance is inferior to virtue" (235).
• Explain:  "I shall be employed with things, not words!" (235).

• Which "accomplishments" were women expected to pursue (236n)?
• How is cunning "the natural opponent of strength" (236)?

• Explain: "The mind will always be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on" (237).

239:

• According to Wollstonecraft, what does "the most perfect education" involve (239)?

240-41:

• How, according to Wollstonecraft, are women like militia men?

243:

• Explain Wollstonecraft's take on the Genesis story of creation.

• What problem does Wollstonecraft have with Gregory's advice to his daughters?

245:

• Explain:  "The woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practising various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband" (245).

• Explain:  "Friendship or indifference inevitably succeeds love" (246).

• Explain:  "An unhappy marriage is often very advantageous to a family, and . . . the neglected wife is, in general, the best mother" (247).

• Explain:  "For though moralists have agreed that the tenor of life seems to prove that man is prepared by various circumstances for a future state, they constantly concur in advising women only to provide for the present" (249).

• According to Wollstonecraft, do "passive indolent women make the best wives?" (250).  Explain.

• Explain:  "Teach them, in common with man, to submit to necessity, instead of giving, to render them more pleasing, a sex to morals" (251).
• Explain:  "The conduct of an accountable being must be regulated by the operations of its reason" (251).

253:

• How, according to Wollstonecraft, do women become "the prey of the senses" (253).
• Explain: "Novels, music, poetry, and gallantry, all tend to make women the creatures of sensation, and their character is thus formed in the mould of folly" (253).

254:

• Explain: "[I]f fear in girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see women with more dignified aspects" (254).

255:

• Explain: "I come round to my old argument; if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an understanding to improve" (255).

• Explain: "[I]f love be the supreme good, let women be only educated to inspire it . . . ; but, if they be moral beings, let them have a chance to become intelligent; and let love to man be only a part of that glowing flame of universal love, which, after encircling humanity, mounts in grateful incense to God" (259).