The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria, Mary Wollstonecraft

• Godwin's Preface
• THE public are here presented with the last literary attempt of an author, whose fame has been uncommonly extensive, and whose talents have probably been most admired, by the persons by whom talents are estimated with the greatest accuracy and discrimination.
• Wollstonecraft's Preface
• In many works of this species, the hero is allowed to be mortal, and to become wise and virtuous as well as happy, by a train of events and circumstances. The heroines, on the contrary, are to be born immaculate, and to act like goddesses of wisdom, just come forth highly finished Minervas from the head of Jove.
• For my part, I cannot suppose any situation more distressing, than for a woman of sensibility, with an improving mind, to be bound to such a man as I have described for life; obliged to renounce all the humanizing affections, and to avoid cultivating her taste, lest her perception of grace and refinement of sentiment, should sharpen to agony the pangs of disappointment.
• Chapter 1
• Now she endeavoured to brace her mind to fortitude, and to ask herself what was to be her employment in her dreary cell? Was it not to effect her escape, to fly to the succour of her child, and to baffle the selfish schemes of her tyrant -- her husband?
• "Could anything but madness produce such a disgust for food?"
  "Yes, grief; you would not ask the question if you knew what it was."
• "Yet I will take some refreshment: I mean not to die. -- No; I will preserve my senses; and convince even you, sooner than you are aware of, that my intellects have never been disturbed, though the exertion of them may have been suspended by some infernal drug."
• -- And to what purpose did she rally all her energy? -- Was not the world a vast prison, and women born slaves?
• Though she failed immediately to rouse a lively sense of injustice in the mind of her guard, because it had been sophisticated into misanthropy, she touched her heart.
• Maria's conversation had amused and interested her, and the natural consequence was a desire, scarcely observed by herself, of obtaining the esteem of a person she admired.
• She seemed to be sailing on the vast ocean of life, without seeing any land-mark to indicate the progress of time; to find employment was then to find variety, the animating principle of nature.
• Chapter 2
• Though this employment lightened with the weight of time, yet, never losing sight of her main object, Maria did not allow any opportunity to slip of winning affections of Jemima; for she discovered in her a strength of mind, that excited her esteem, clouded as it was by the misanthropy of despair.
• Discouraged by these changes, Maria relapsed into despondency, when she was cheered by the alacrity with which Jemima brought her a fresh parcel of books; assuring her, that she had taken some pains to obtain them from one of the keepers, who attended a gentleman confined in the opposite corner of the gallery.
• What a creative power has an affectionate heart! There are those beings who cannot live without loving, as poets love; and who feel the electric spark of genius, wherever it awakens sentiment or grace.
• "They who make me wish to appear the most amiable and good in their eyes, must possess in a degree," she would exclaim, "the graces and virtues they call into action."
• A confused recollection of having seen somebody who resembled him, immediately occurred, to puzzle and torment her with endless conjectures. Five minutes sooner, and she would have seen his face, and been out of suspense — was ever any thing so unlucky?
• She found however that she could think of nothing else; or, if she thought of her daughter, it was to wish that she had a father whom her mother could respect and love.
• Chapter 3
• "Let me see it," demanded Maria impatiently, "You surely are not afraid of trusting me with the effusions of a madman."
• I will enquire, why you are so mysteriously detained -- and I will have an answer. "HENRY DARNFORD"
• The regrets I felt to renounce a life of pleasure, was counter-balanced by the curiosity I had to see America, or rather to travel; [nor had any of those circumstances occurred to my youth, which might have been calculated] to bind my country to my heart.
• Confined to my bed, or chair, by a lingering cure, my only refuge from the preying activity of my mind, was books, which I read with great avidity, profiting by the conversation of my host, a man of sound understanding.
• The only pleasure wealth afforded, was to make an ostentatious display of it; for the cultivation of fine arts, or literature, had not introduced into the first circles that polish of manners renders the rich so essentially superior to the poor in Europe.
• A few moments were only allowed to Maria to comment on this narrative, when Darnford left her to her own thoughts, to the "never ending, still beginning," task of weighing his words, recollecting his tones of voice, and feeling them reverberate on her heart.
• Chapter 4
• The youths who are satisfied with the ordinary pleasures of life, and do not sigh after ideal phantoms of love and friendship, will never arrive at great maturity of understanding; but if these reveries are cherished, as is too frequently the case with women, when experiences ought to have taught them in what human happiness consists, they become as useless as they are wretched.
• They were silent -- yet discoursed, how eloquently? till, after a moment's reflection, Maria drew her chair by the side of his, and, with a composed sweetness of voice, and supernatural benignity of countenance, said, "I must open my whole heart to you; you must be told who I am, why I am here, and why, telling you I am a wife, I blush not to" -- the blush spoke the rest.
• And Jemima, after again patrolling the passage, was so softened by the air of confidence which breathed around her, that she voluntarily began an account of herself.
• Chapter 5
• Her incessant importunities to prevail upon my father to screen her from reproach by marrying her, as he had promised in the fervour of seduction, estranged him from her so completely, that her very person became distasteful to him; and he began to hate, as well as despise me, before I was born.
• The day my mother died, the ninth after my birth, I was consigned to the care of the cheapest nurse my father could find; who suckled her own child at the same time, and lodged as many more as she could get, in two cellar-like apartments.
• When detected, she was not content to chastize me herself at the moment, but, on my father's return in the evening (he was a shopman), the principal discourse was to recount my faults, and attribute them to the wicked disposition which I had brought into the world with me, inherited from my mother.
• I had no one to love me; or to make me respected, to enable me to acquire respect.
• One day however, when the family were at a methodist meeting, he contrived to be alone int he house with me, and by blows -- yes; blows and menaces, compelled me to submit to his ferocious desire; and, to avoid my mistress's fury, I was obliged in future to comply, and skulk to my loft at his command, in spite of increasing loathing.
• I began to extend my thoughts beyond myself, and grieve for human misery, till I discovered, with horror -- ah, what horror! -- that I was with child.
• I hurried back to my hole, and rage giving place to despair, sought for the potion that was to produce abortion, and swallowed it, with a wish that it might destroy me, at the same time it stopped the sensations of new-born life, which I felt with indescribable emotion.
• footnote from Rights of Women: "Business of various kinds, [women] ... might likewise pursue, if they were educated in a more orderly manner, which might save many from common and legal prostitution" referring, in the latter case, to marriage.
• I was therefore prevailed on, though I felt a horror of men, to accept the offer of a gentleman, rather in the decline of years, to keep his house, pleasantly situated in a little village near Hampstead.
• And, indeed, I soon did recollect it as such with agony, when his sudden death (for he had recourse to the most exhilarating cordials to keep up the convivial tone of his spirits) again threw me into the desert of human society.
• "As far as I have been able to observe," replied Jemima, "prejudices, caught up by chance, are obstinately maintained by the poor, to the exclusion of improvement; they have not time to reason or reflect to any extent, or minds sufficiently exercised to adopt the principles of action, which form perhaps the only basis of contentment in every station."
• I have now to mention a circumstance which fills me with remorse, and fear it will entirely deprive me of your esteem.
• After my discussion, I was more at a loss than ever for a subsistence, and, not to weary you with a repetition of the same unavailing attempts, unable to stand at the washing-tub, I began to consider the rich and poor as natural enemies, and became a thief from principle.
• He is a shrewd -- shall I say it? villain. He observed something resolute in my manner, and offered to take me with him, and instruct me how to treat the disturbed minds he meant to intrust to my care. The offer of forty pounds a year, and to quit a workhouse, was not to be despised, though the condition of shutting my eyes and hardening my heart was annexed to it.
• Maria took her hand, and Jemima, more overcome by kindness than she had ever been by cruelty, hastened out of the room to conceal her emotions.
• Chapter 6
• Maria began to anticipate the delight it would afford her to gain intelligence of her child. This project was now the only subject of reflection; and she watched impatiently for the dawn of day, with that determinate purpose which generally insures success.
• "With your heart, and such dreadful experience, can you lend your aid to deprive my babe of a mother's tenderness, a mother's care? In the name of God, assist me to snatch her from destruction! Let me but give her an education -- let me prepare her body and mind to encounter the ills which await her sex;
• Maria took up a cup with trembling hand, then forcibly recovering her fortitude, and restraining the convulsive movement which agitated the muscles of her mouth, she said, "Spare yourself the pain of preparing me for your information, I adjure you! -- My child is dead!"
• at the conclusion of his letter, wishing to supply the place of her unworthy relations, whose want of principles he execrated, he assured her, calling her his dearest girl, "that it should henceforth be the business of his life to make her happy."
• Chapter 7
• "ADDRESSING these memoirs to you, my child, uncertain whether I shall ever have an opportunity of instructing you, many observations will probably flow from my heart, which only a mother -- a mother schooled in misery, could make.
• My eldest brother, it is true, as he grew up, was treated with more respect by my father; and became in due form the deputy-tyrant of the house. The representative of my father, a being privileged by nature -- a boy, and the darling of my mother, he did not fail to act like an heir apparent. Such indeed was my mother's extravagant partiality, that, in comparison with her affection for him, she might be said not to love the rest of her children.
• Extreme indulgence had rendered him so selfish, that he only thought of himself; and from tormenting insects and animals, he became the despot of his brothers, and still move of his sisters.
• "My uncle's increasing affection led him to visit me often.
• Had my home been more comfortable, or my previous acquaintances more numerous, I should not probably have been so eager to open my heart to new affections.
• I did not then suspect, that my eloquence was in my complexion, the blush of seventeen, or that, in a world where humanity to women is the characteristic of advancing civilization, the beauty of a young girl was so much more interesting than the distress of an old one.
• Emboldened by my innocent warmth, he then kissed me -- and I did not draw back -- I took it for a kiss of charity.
• I trembled with emotion -- now, indeed, I was in love.
• The bitter experience is yet to come, that has taught me how very distinct are the principles of virtue, from the casual feelings from which they germinate.
• Chapter 8
• "My mother had solemnly recommended my sisters to my care, and bid me be a mother to them.
• My home every day became more and more disagreeable to me; my liberty was unnecessarily abridged, and my books, on the pretext that they made me idle, taken from me.
• By allowing women but one way of rising in the world, the fostering of libertinism of men, society makes monsters of them, and then their ignoble vices are brought forward as a proof of inferiority of intellect.
• Though my life had not passed in the most even tenour with my mother, it was paradise to that I was destined to endure with my father's mistress, jealous of her illegitimate authority.
• To my uncle I ventured to open my heart; and he, with his wonted benevolence, began to consider in which manner he could extricate me out of my present irksome situation.
• George seldom spoke in my uncle's company, except to utter a short, judicious question, or to make a pertinent remark, with all due deference to his superior judgment; so that my uncle seldom left his company without observing, that the young man had more in him than people supposed.
• It is true, that George was by no means a great favourite of mine as during the first year of our acquaintance; still, as he often coincided in opinion with me, and echoed my sentiments; and having myself no other attachment, I heard with pleasure my uncle's proposal; but thought more of obtaining my freedom, than of my lover.
• He cut the Gordian knot, which my principles, mistaken ones, respected; he dissolved the tie, the fetters rather, that ate into my very vitals -- and I should rejoice, conscious that my mind is freed, though confined in hell itself; the only place that even fancy can imagine more dreadful than my present abode.
• Why was I not born a man, or why was I born at all?
• Chapter 9
• "These were, at first, spontaneous emotions, though, becoming acquainted with men of wit and polished manners, I could not help regretting my early marriage; and that, in my haste to escape from a temporary dependence, and expand my newly fledged wings, in an unknown sky, I had been caught in a trap, and caged for life.
• "With all my attention and affectionate interest, I perceived that I could not become the friend or confident of my husband.
• footnote explaining Blackstone's summarization of coverture: "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband."
• "On further enquiry I was informed, that this miserable spectacle was the daughter of a servant, a country girl, who caught Mr. Venables' eye, and whom he seduced. On his marriage he sent her away, her situation being too visible. After her delivery, she was thrown on the town; and died in a hospital within the year. The babe was sent to a parish-nurse, and afterwards to this woman, who did not seem much better;
• "If the state of this child affected me, what were my feelings at a discovery I made respecting Peggy --?
• Chapter 10
• When novelists or moralists praise as a virtue, a woman's coldness of constitution, and want of passion; and make her yield to the ardour of her lover out of sheer compassion, or to promote a plan of future comfort, I am disgusted. They may be good women, in the ordinary acceptation of the phrase, and do no harm; but they appear to me not to have those 'finely fashioned nerves,' which render the senses exquisite. They may possess tenderness; but they want that fire of the imagination, which produces active sensibility and positive virtue. How does the woman deserve to be characterized, who marries one man, with a heart and imagination devoted to another?
• Truth is the only basis of virtue; and we cannot, without depraving our minds, endeavour to please a lover or husband, but in proportion as he pleases us.
• "After these remarks, I am ashamed to own, that I was pregnant.
• Humanity, compassion, and the interest produced by the habit of living together, made me try to relieve, and sympathize with him; but, when I recollected that I was bound to live with such a being for ever -- my heart died within me; my desire of improvement became languid, and baleful, corroding melancholy took possession of my soul. Marriage had bastilled me for life.
• She cannot drive an unfaithful husband from his house, nor separate, or tear, his children from him, however culpable he may be; and he, still the master of his own fate, enjoys the smiles of a world, that would brand her with infamy, did she, taking consolation, venture to retaliate.
• (recounting the words of her uncle...)
  A woman, on the contrary, resigning what is termed her natural protector (though he never was so, but in name) is despised and shunned, for asserting the independence of mind distinctive of a rational being, and spurning at slavery.
• At length it was necessary to say "Farewell!" -- and we parted -- gracious God! to meet no more.