Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Born 27 Apr 1759, London - Died 10 Sep 1797, Italy
Mary Wollstonecraft is remembered as a radical philosophiser, author and early feminist. Renown for her writing, Mary is also famous for her unconventional lifestyle, which was documented in Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman a tribute written by her husband William Godwin.
Wollstonecraft’s legacy lives on through her daughter, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, who is her equal in terms of challenging social conventions and progressive ideology.
Childhood
Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th April 1759, in Spitalfields, London. Her father was named Edward John Wollstonecraft and her mother Elizabeth Dixon. She initially grew up in a comfortable background, although it was understood that her father was a drunkard, who squandered the families’ wealth, forcing them to move frequently. Financial instability became a feature of Mary’s youth. Her father was also abusive towards Mary’s mother, because of this Mary used to sleep on the floor outside her mother’s room in order to protect her.
Mary was the second of seven children, and due to this played a maternal role towards her younger sisters. In 1784, Mary encouraged her sister to flee from an unhappy marriage with her new born child, a radical move for its day. This event clearly demonstrates Marys willingness to disrupt social norms, a trait which features heavily throughout Marys life. Although sadly in this case, the move meant that Marys sister faced a life of poverty, in which she was unable to remarry and therefore faced social condemnation and forced to work hard for the rest of her life.
Early Occupation
Mary left her family home in 1778 to become a Lady’s companion to a widow in Bath named Sarah Dawson, but found that she was not suited for this role due to her difficult relationship with her employer. She returned home for a brief period in 1780 to look after her dying mother.
Mary chose to reside with the Blood’s upon the death of her mother. She stayed with the family for two years, her close relationship with her friend Fanny Blood remained important to her throughout her life. Mary credited Fanny with ‘opening her mind’.
Together both women set up a school in Newington Green, a Dissenting community. After marriage, Fanny’s husband moved her to Lisbon, hoping it would be better for her fragile health. Fanny’s health worsened with her pregnancy, and Mary joined her in Lisbon to attempt to nurse her, the abandonment of the school by both women lead to its failure. Fanny died of consumption in 1784, which devastated Mary, who later named her first child after her friend.
Fanny Blood
Intellectual Career
Mary gave up work as a governess in Ireland after only a year, she did not get on with her employer Lady Kingsborough, who in Marys eyes embodied everything that was wrong with women as her feminist ideology developed.
Mary returned to London and attempted to support herself through her writing, an unusual occupation for women at this time. Mary's frustration at the lack of career opportunities for educated and respectable women heavily influenced her writing of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, which she wrote in 1787.
A Publisher named Joseph Johnston reached out to her and gave her a job as an editorial assistant/writer for his magazine named Analytical Review. Mary found herself embroiled in progressive intellectual circles during her time in London, it was during this period that Mary first met William Godwin, her future husband, although they both did not make much of an impression upon the other.
As Mary grew intellectually during this time, she wrote two of her most famous pieces of work. Firstly, A Vindication of The Rights of Men, which she published anonymously on the 29th November 1790, a passionate response to the Edmund Burke, a Whig MP’s, work which condemned the French Revolution and angered Mary greatly. A Second edition was published on the 18 December, this time Mary publicly claimed authorship and became famous overnight.
"Dancing and elegance of manners are very pleasing, if too great a stress is not laid on them"
- Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, 1787
"I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men, who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers"
- Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, 1787
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Written in 1792, in response to work by Jean-Jacques Rousseau called Emile, which outlined that a female’s education should be based on making her useful and supportive of a rational man. Mary argued that women should be given the same educational opportunities as men. The work attacks the traditional concept of the Aristocratic woman, and the corruption in typical gender and class systems. Mary became known internationally, and allegedly the French statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord visited Mary, and she asked for the new regime in France to offer both men and women the same educational rights.
During this time, Mary started an affair with a married man named Henry Fusil. The affair ended badly, with Fusil breaking it off, and Mary, fleeing to France humiliated.
Paris
Mary departed for Paris in December 1792, to join a group of English philosophers, such as Thomas Paine and Helen Maria Williams, who were celebrating the revolution. A month later she witnessed King Louis XVI being tried by the National assembly, a sight which she claims made her cry.
Mary became associated with the Girondins, a less radical moderate thinking political group. It was here that she met and fell in love with an American named Gilbert Imlay. The two became lovers, and Mary soon fell pregnant. Having a child out of wedlock was unconventional and unpopular in both Britain and France during the Georgian era.
In February 1793, France declared war on Britain, the instability in France caused Mary to attempt to leave France for Switzerland, but was declined permission
Painted map of Paris 1792
Gilbert Imlay
The situation in France became more dangerous when members of the Girondins faced execution and life for foreigners became extremely difficult. In order to protect Mary, Imlay registered her as his wife, granting her immediate American citizenship, although no marriage actually took place between them. Imlay worked as a runner, bringing food from American ships past the blockade.
Under the Jacobins regime life in France was extremely difficult, British food blockades caused food shortages and the political instability that ravaged France meant that Mary witnessed the death of many of her friends. Although Mary found life under the Jacobins regime fearful she did not give up on her ideals for the French Revolution, she wrote a history of the early revolution, An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution, published in London in December 1794.
Her First Child - Fanny Imlay
Mary gave birth to her and Imlay’s child on the 14th May 1794, a daughter whom she named Fanny. Imlay had left Mary for London previous to the birth, with a promise to return, however his communications to Mary became infrequent, leading her believe that he had found another woman. Mary was distraught by this, and surviving letters show her to be depressed at this time. Mary herself was fearful of returning to Britain, as government policy meant there was a strict crack down on radicals and revolutionary sympathisers.
Mary left France on the 7th April 1975 to follow Imlay to London. She continued referring to herself as ‘Mrs Imlay’ in order to bestow legitimacy onto her child, however when she reached London Imlay rejected her. This spurred Mary to attempt to take her own life, but she was saved by Imlay. In an attempt to win him back, she travelled to Scandinavia with her daughter and a maid to sort business on his behalf. From this trip she published Letters From Sweden 1796, which included her private letters to Imlay, which displayed her desire for freedom and autonomy while also showing her dependence and neediness towards him.
Rejection, Depression, Suicide
"Eleven days of weariness on board a vessel not intended for the accommodation of passengers have so exhausted my spirits."
- Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Mary Wollstonecraft
Fanny Imlay
"If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book"
- William Godwin, refreing to Mary's Letters from Sweden
A Second Suicide
After Mary’s return to London, she attempted to take her life once again. She tried to drown herself in the River Thames, but was fortunately saved by a passer-by who witnessed her jump. Mary gave up on her relationship with Imlay and gradually returned to her literary life in London.
William Godwin
William Godwin and Mary bagan a slow but passionate love affair, when they were reintrosuced through their shared publisher . Mary became pregnant and the two decided to marry so their child would be legitimate. They married on the 29th March 1797. The marriage revealed that she was not married to Imay, and had a child out of wedlock, a revelation that lost the couple many friends. Godwin also came under criticism because his previous work had advocated to abolish the institute of marriage
The couple adopted an unsual style of marriage, moving into adjoining houses, which they named the Polygon, rather than living together, they wanted to maintain independent and so communicated often through letters. It is believed that their marriage was happy, although it did not last long.
"This light was lent to me for a very short period, and is now extinguished for ever!"
- William Godwin,
The Birth of Mary Godwin Shelley
On the 30th August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. Tragically she died after only 10 days from septicaemia due to complications from the birth. Even after death, Mary still caused a social scandal, William Godwin published Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in January 1798, in which he included all the details and events of her life to portray her in a sincere and compassionate way. The memoirs included shocking details of her life which showed her unconventional and progressive ideology and lifestyle, many readers were shocked that he would reveal Wollstonecraft's illegitimate children, love affairs, and suicide attempts.. Some argue that this tarnished the reputation she had built for her self through her academic work, others see it as a very real story of her life, detailing the amazing and couragous woman that she was.
“I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy.”
- William Godwin a letter to Thomas Holcroft
Mary was buried in St Pancreas church, until 1851, when her remains were moved to St Peter’s Church to a family plot as a result of Marry Shelley, where it remains today. Her legacy lives on through her daughters work, which is still considered today as influential and enlightening.
