Mary Wollstonecrafts Life of Thirty-Eight Years

Mary Wollstonecraft's Life of Thirty-Eight Years Dates:  April  27, 1759 -  September 10, 1797 Known for: Mary Wollstonecrafts  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman  is one of the most important documents in the history of womens rights and feminism. The author  herself lived an often-troubled personal life, and her early death of childbed fever cut short her evolving ideas. Her second daughter,  Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, was Percy Shelleys second wife and author of the book,  Frankenstein. The Power of Experience Mary Wollstonecraft believed that ones life experiences had a crucial impact on ones possibilities and character.  Her own life illustrates this power of experience. Commentators on Mary Wollstonecrafts ideas from her own time until now have looked at the ways in which her own experience influenced her ideas. She handled her own examination of this influence on her own work mostly through fiction and indirect reference. Both those who agreed with Mary Wollstonecraft and detractors have pointed to her up-and-down personal life to explain much about her proposals for womens equality, womens education, and human possibility. For instance, in 1947, Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia F. Farnham, Freudian psychiatrists, said this about Mary Wollstonecraft: Mary Wollstonecraft hated men. She had every personal reason possible known to psychiatry for hating them. Hers was hatred of creatures she greatly admired and feared, creatures that seemed to her capable of doing everything while women to her seemed capable of doing nothing whatever, in their own nature being pitifully weak in comparison with the strong, lordly male. This analysis follows a sweeping statement saying that Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (these authors also mistakenly substitute Women for Woman in the title) proposes in general, that women should behave as nearly as possible like men. Im not sure how one could make such a statement after actually reading A Vindication, but it leads to their conclusion that Mary Wollstonecraft was an extreme neurotic of a compulsive type... Out of her illness arose the ideology of feminism... [See the Lundberg/Farnham essay reprinted in Carol H. Postons Norton Critical Edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman pp. 273-276.) What were those personal reasons for Mary Wollstonecrafts ideas that her detractors and defenders alike could point to? Mary Wollstonecrafts Early Life Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27, 1759. Her father had inherited wealth from his father but spent the entire fortune. He drank heavily and apparently was abusive verbally and perhaps physically. He failed in his many attempts at farming, and when Mary was fifteen, the family moved to Hoxton, a suburb of London. Here Mary met Fanny Blood, to become perhaps her closest friend. The family moved to Wales and then back to London as Edward Wollstonecraft tried to make a living. At nineteen, Mary Wollstonecraft took a position that was one of the few available to middle class educated women: a companion to an older woman. She traveled in England with her charge, Mrs. Dawson, but two years later returned home to attend her mother who was dying. Two years after Marys return, her mother died and her father remarried and moved to Wales. Marys sister Eliza married, and Mary moved in with her friend Fanny Blood and her family, helping to support the family through her needlework another of the few routes open to women for economic self-support. Eliza gave birth within another year, and her husband, Meridith Bishop, wrote to Mary and asked that she return to nurse her sister whose mental condition had deteriorated seriously. Marys theory was that Elizas condition was the result of her husbands treatment of her, and Mary helped Eliza leave her husband and arrange a legal separation. Under the laws of the time, Eliza had to leave her young son with his father, and the son died before his first birthday. Mary Wollstonecraft, her sister Eliza Bishop, her friend Fanny Blood and later Marys and Elizas sister Everina turned to another possible means of financial support for themselves and opened a school in Newington Green. It is in Newington Green that Mary Wollstonecraft first met the clergyman Richard Price whose friendship led to meeting many of the liberals among Englands intellectuals. Fanny decided to marry, and, pregnant soon after the marriage, called Mary to be with her in Lisbon for the birth. Fanny and her baby died soon after the premature birth. When Mary Wollstonecraft returned to England, she closed the financially-struggling school and wrote her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. She then took a position in yet another respectable profession for women of her background and circumstances: governess. After a year of traveling in Ireland and England with the family of her employer, Viscount Kingsborough, Mary was fired by Lady Kingsborough for becoming too close to her charges. And so Mary Wollstonecraft decided that her means of support had to be her writing, and she returned to London in 1787. Mary Wollstonecraft Takes Up Writing From the circle of English intellectuals to whom shed been introduced through Rev. Price, Mary Wollstonecraft had met Joseph Johnson, a leading publisher of the liberal ideas of England. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote and published a novel,  Mary, a Fiction, which was a thinly-disguised novel drawing heavily on her own life. Just before shed written  Mary, a Fiction, shed written to her sister about reading Rousseau, and her admiration for his attempt to portray in fiction the ideas which he believed. Clearly,  Mary, a Fiction  was in part her answer to Rousseau, an attempt to portray the way that a womans limited options and the serious oppression of a woman by circumstances in her life, led her to a bad end. Mary Wollstonecraft also published a childrens book,  Original Stories from Real Life,  again integrating fiction and reality creatively. To further her goal of financial self-sufficiency, she also took on translation and published a translation from French of a book by Jacques Necker. Joseph Johnson recruited Mary Wollstonecraft to write reviews and articles for his journal,  Analytical Review. As part of Johnsons and Prices circles, she met and interacted with many of the great thinkers of the time. Their admiration for the French Revolution was a frequent topic of their discussions. Liberty in the Air Certainly, this was a period of exhilaration for Mary Wollstonecraft. Accepted into circles of intellectuals, beginning to make her living with her own efforts, and expanding her own education through reading and discussion, she had achieved a position in sharp contrast to that of her mother, sister, and friend Fanny. The hopefulness of the liberal circle about the French Revolution and its potentials for liberty and human fulfillment plus her own more secure life are reflected in Wollstonecrafts energy and enthusiasm. In 1791, in London, Mary Wollstonecraft attended a dinner for Thomas Paine hosted by Joseph Johnson. Paine, whose recent  The Rights of Man  had defended the French Revolution, was among the writers Johnson published others included Priestley, Coleridge, Blake, and Wordsworth. At this dinner, she met another of the writers for Johnsons  Analytical Review,  William Godwin. His recollection was that the two of them Godwin and Wollstonecraft immediately took a dislike to each other, and their loud and angry argument over dinner made it nearly impossible for the better-known guests to even attempt conversation. The Rights of Men When Edmund Burke wrote his response to Paines  The Rights of Man, his  Reflections on the Revolution in France, Mary Wollstonecraft published her response,  A Vindication of the Rights of Men. As was common for women writers and with anti-revolutionary sentiment quite volatile in England, she published it anonymously at first, adding her name in 1791 to the second edition. In  A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Mary Wollstonecraft takes exception to one of Burkes points: that chivalry by the more powerful makes unnecessary rights for the less powerful. Illustrating her own argument are examples of the lack of chivalry, not only in practice but embedded in English law. Chivalry was not, for Mary or for many women, their experience of how more powerful men acted towards women. Vindication of the Rights of Woman Later in 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft published  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,  further exploring issues  of womens education, womens equality, womens status, womens rights and the role of public/private, political/domestic life. Off to Paris After correcting her first edition of the  Vindication of the Rights of Woman  and issuing a second, Wollstonecraft decided to go directly to Paris to see for herself what the French Revolution was evolving towards. Mary Wollstonecraft in France Mary Wollstonecraft arrived in France alone but soon met Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. Mary Wollstonecraft, like many of the foreign visitors in France, realized quickly that the Revolution was creating danger and chaos for everyone, and moved with Imlay to a house in the suburbs of Paris. A few months later, when she returned to Paris, she registered at the American Embassy as Imlays wife, though they never actually married. As the wife of an American citizen, Mary Wollstonecraft would be under the protection of the Americans. Pregnant with Imlays child, Wollstonecraft began to realize that Imlays commitment to her was not as strong as she had expected. She followed him to Le Havre and then, after the birth of their daughter, Fanny, followed him to Paris. He returned almost immediately to London, leaving Fanny and Mary alone in Paris. Reaction to the French Revolution Allied with the Girondists of France, she watched in horror as these allies were guillotined. Thomas Paine was imprisoned in France, whose Revolution he had so nobly defended. Writing through this time, Mary Wollstonecraft then published  Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, documenting her awareness that the revolutions grand hope for human equality was not being fully actualized. Back to England, Off to Sweden Mary Wollstonecraft finally returned to London with her daughter, and there for the first time attempted suicide over her despondency over Imlays inconsistent commitment. Imlay rescued Mary Wollstonecraft from her suicide attempt, and, a few months later, sent her on an important and sensitive business venture to Scandinavia. Mary, Fanny, and her daughters nurse Marguerite traveled through Scandinavia, attempting to track down a ships captain who had apparently absconded with a fortune that was to be traded in Sweden for goods to import past the English blockade of France. She had with her a letter with little precedent in the context of 18th century womens status giving her legal power of attorney to represent Imlay in attempting to resolve his difficulty with his business partner and with the missing captain. During her time in Scandinavia as she attempted to track down the people involved with the missing gold and silver, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote letters of her observations of the culture and people she met as well as of the natural world. She returned from her trip, and in London discovered that Imlay was living with an actress. She attempted another suicide and was again rescued. Her letters written from her trip, full of emotion as well as passionate political fervor, were published a year after her return, as  Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Done with Imlay, Mary Wollstonecraft took up writing again, renewed her involvement in the circle of English Jacobins, defenders of the Revolution, and decided to renew one particular old and brief acquaintance. William Godwin: an Unconventional Relationship Having lived with and borne a child to Gilbert Imlay, and having decided to make her living in what was considered a mans profession, Mary Wollstonecraft had learned not to obey convention. So in 1796, she decided, against all social convention, to call upon William Godwin, her fellow  Analytical Review  writer and dinner-party-antagonist, at his home, on  April 14, 1796. Godwin had read her  Letters from Sweden,  and from that book had gained a different perspective on Marys thought. Where hed formerly found her too rational and distant and critical, he now found her emotionally deep and sensitive. His own natural optimism, which had reacted against her seemingly-natural pessimism, found a different Mary Wollstonecraft in the  Letters   in their appreciation of nature, their keen insights into a different culture, their exposition of the character of the people shed met. If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book, Godwin wrote later. Their friendship deepened quickly into a love affair, and by August they were lovers. Marriage By next March, Godwin and Wollstonecraft faced a dilemma. Theyd both written and spoken in principle against the idea of marriage, which was at that time a legal institution in which women lost legal existence, subsumed legally in their husbands identity. Marriage as a legal institution was far from their ideals of loving companionship. But Mary was pregnant with Godwins child, and so on March 29, 1797, they married. Their daughter, named  Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was born on August 30 and on September 10, Mary Wollstonecraft died of septicemia blood poisoning known as childbed fever. After Her Death Mary Wollstonecrafts last year with Godwin had, however, not been spent in domestic activities alone they had, in fact, maintained separate residences so that both could continue their writing. Godwin published in January 1798, several of Marys works that shed been working on before her unexpected death. He published a volume  The Posthumous Works  along with his own  Memoirs  of Mary. Unconventional to the end, Godwin in his  Memoirs  was brutally honest about the circumstances of Marys life her love affair with and betrayal by Imlay, her daughter Fannys illegitimate birth, her suicide attempts in her despondency over Imlays unfaithfulness and failure to live up to her ideals of commitment. These details of Wollstonecrafts life, in the cultural reaction to the French Revolutions failure, resulted in her near-neglect by thinkers and writers for decades, and scathing reviews of her work by others. Mary Wollstonecrafts death itself was used to disprove claims of womens equality. Rev. Polwhele, who attacked Mary Wollstonecraft and other women authors, wrote that she died a death that strongly marked the distinction of the sexes, by pointing out the destiny of women, and the diseases to which they are liable. And yet, such susceptibility to death in childbirth was not something Mary Wollstonecraft had been unaware of, in writing her novels and political analysis. In fact, her friend Fannys early death, her mothers and her sisters precarious positions as wives to abusive husbands, and her own troubles with Imlays treatment of her and their daughter, she was quite aware of such distinction and based her arguments for equality in part on the need to transcend and do away with such inequities. Mary Wollstonecrafts final novel  Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman,  published by Godwin after her death, is a new attempt to explain her ideas about the unsatisfactory position of women in contemporary society, and therefore justify her ideas for reform. As Mary Wollstonecraft had written in 1783, just after her novel  Mary  was published, she herself recognized that it is a tale, to illustrate an opinion of mine, that a genius will educate itself. The two novels and Marys life illustrate that circumstances will limit the opportunities for expression but that genius will work to educate itself. The ending is not necessarily going to be happy because the limitations that society and nature place on human development may be too strong to overcome all attempts at self-fulfillment yet the self has incredible power to work to overcome those limits. What more could be achieved if such limits were reduced or removed! Experience and Life Mary Wollstonecrafts life was filled with both depths of unhappiness and struggle, and peaks of achievement and happiness. From her early exposure to abuse of women and the dangerous possibilities of marriage and childbirth to her later blossoming as an accepted intellect and thinker, then her sense of being betrayed by both Imlay and the French Revolution followed by her association in a happy, productive and relationship with Godwin, and finally by her sudden and tragic death, Mary Wollstonecrafts experience and her work were intimately tied together, and illustrate her own conviction that experience cannot be neglected in philosophy and literature. Mary Wollstonecrafts exploration cut short by her death of the integration of sense and reason, imagination and thought looks toward 19th century thought, and was part of the movement from Enlightenment to Romanticism. Mary Wollstonecrafts ideas on public versus private life, politics and domestic spheres, and men and women were, though too often neglected, nevertheless important influences on the thought and development of philosophy and political ideas that resonate even today. More About Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft Quotations  - key quotations from Mary Wollstonecrafts workJudith Sargent Murray  - a contemporary feminist, from AmericaOlympe de Gouges  - a contemporary feminist, from FranceMary Wollstonecraft Shelley  - Mary Wollstonecrafts daughter, author of  Frankenstein

Movies Historical Representation Essays

Movies Historical Representation Essays Movies Historical Representation Essay Movies Historical Representation Essay Essay Topic: Historical Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Movies Historical Representation No country in the world has recorded its history through films as America has. America has created films about the major events in its history. It has served the memories of its past, and has acted as an educational tool. Apart from the documentaries concerning the specific events, many of the movies portray the events as they happened, with an additional touch of fiction and added or exaggerated heroism. These features appeal to the audiences as they add the entertainment value. Audiences across different sectors have different interpretations concerning the movie. This is largely influenced by the directors’ intention and objective when creating the movie. When the directors are more concerned about the entertainment, rather than the awareness or educational objective, they will not take keen interest about the accuracy of the events. They will instead seek to add visual effects and add other elements that appeal to the viewers. Movies can sometimes serve as a preserve for history, and they aim to represent the events as accurately as possible, but they often lack to show all the details concerning the event, thus making them less credible as sources of historical information. . The movie â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† by director Steven Spielberg is one of the most important and realistic movies about World War II. It is the story about a group of US soldiers who have to save Private Ryan. Many of the families suffered when their children went to the war. The government had set a policy that was aimed at making sure that family lines survived. Private Ryan had already lost three brothers in the war, and the government sent soldiers to save him since he was the only son left. The movie details the events of the operation. It shows the courage of the soldiers as they fight to save one of their own. It shows the loss and the heartbreak that the families suffered when their children went to war with no guarantee that they would ever see them again. The movie shows the bond that the soldiers developed as they fought the war, and the lengths they took to ensure that they survived. The battle scenes in the movie are violent, as they seek to show the real extent of the war. Spielberg has directed several movies about different wars. In a culture and country where war movies are released often, the characters and crew involved in the production of the movie might have watched several war movies. Many of the war movies glorify the individual bravery of the American soldiers. There is therefore a lot of influence of such ideologies in the movie. Sometimes, the directors do not research materials concerning the movie that is actually contrary to the obvious notion of heroism and bravery. They do not include material where soldiers from one country betray each other or make foolish decisions. In many movies, it seems like all the soldiers, and especially those in the leadership position, have a supernatural instinct to know the weaknesses of the enemy, and to know the right tactics to use to control the enemy. This is rarely the case however. Perhaps because of the limitation of time, the directors do not take time to know much about the war. However, it is possible that the main intent of the directors is to please the viewers and show them that the war was justified. Many Americans have lost loved ones in the war. Some of those who have fought in various wars feel that they have given something important to their country. They feel devoted to their country and they feel honored when their bravery is recognized. They are therefore pleased and excited when they get the chance to see such movies. Several printed records such as news articles and books that were written and published, as the war was ongoing give vivid descriptions of the war. In some cases, the soldiers did not always make the right decisions. They were often frightened and they ended up making costly mistakes. Many of the soldiers died in the hands of their fellow compatriots. Some of the soldiers made decisions that ended up putting the troops in danger. The soldiers fighting in the war were not always courageous despite the fact that they had been trained and well equipped for the war. They often made decisions out of fear, desperation, panic or pain (Lewis 134). If such accounts are considered, then it follows that many of the war movies, including â€Å"Saving Private Ryan†, may not be credible, and they do not reflect the war as it really happened. The movies usually show the ingenuity of the soldiers, the wisdom of the captains and other leaders, the obedience of the soldiers to their leaders and the courage of the men. In the movie, the captain chose one of the people who had not been trained for war to accompany them in the search for Ryan. The man did not know the intricacies of the war, and it is through him that the audience learns and sees the fear of the men. There are many factors that led to the end of the war, and that determined the winner of the war. In the case of the Second World War, the American soldiers were fighting with the Germans. The Germans had fought for several years during the Nazi invasion. They were short of supplies and resources, including soldiers, and this weakened them. Americans took considerable time before joining other countries to fight the Germans. They had enough resources when they joined other countries. They were therefore in a better position than the Germans and this enabled them to win the war (Lewis 134). Such accounts are not usually recorded in war movie. The fact that the movie directors and producers show scanty details concerning few aspects of the event, contributes to the lack of credibility seen in war movies. In many Hollywood war movies, someone is always willing to sacrifice his life for the others, and â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† is not an exception. In the movie, Captain Miller chooses to stay behind and fight alongside Ryan. He and his troops go through a lot in their quest for finding Ryan. Some of the men, including Captain Miller, end up dead. What the movie directors fail to realize is that in some of the cases, many of the soldiers are more concerned about saving their lives, than they are in sacrificing themselves for their compatriots. Many critics and audiences believe that the movie is one of the most realistic movies about the Second World War. This is largely because of the graphic violence shown in the movie. The movie starts with extremely violent scenes where the American soldiers are attacked and killed by the Germans on land, and in water. The rest of the movie also has other violent scenes although they are not as graphic as they are in the beginning. Despite its shortcomings, the movie was a good production, and it served to depict the horrors of the war. The movie’s graphic scenes helped in showing just how much the soldiers went through when fighting the war. America has continued to fight in other wars in modern time. It has fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many American soldiers have lost their lives. In the movie, Ryan was lucky enough to survive the war. Other families are not as lucky today, as they have continued to lose their children in the war. The movie makes one wonder whether there is any sense in getting involved in the war. In some cases, American troops are involved in wars, without perceived threat to the county. For instance, NATO’s decision to invade Libya led to the deaths of many people. The country was engaged in a civil war yet the international community, including America, felt the need to fight in the war. There are many ways of resolving conflicts between people, and they d o not have to kill each other as a means of finding peace. Wars are necessary in some cases, as the soldiers fight to protect the people and defend their country. Just like other war movies, â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† is meant to preserve the honor of the soldiers who fought in the war. The directors who direct these movies want to show that the soldiers who sacrificed their lives should be honored and remembered for their bravery. Spielberg aims to show the duty and sacrifice that was made by the soldiers. The movie seems to encourage other people to join in the war (Thompson et al., 56). They do not question the legality of the wars. Many films do not capture the fear of the men and the hatred they have for the war. In the movie, Captain Miller confesses that he feels further away from home every time he kills a person. He does not however do anything about it, but he instead chooses to follow orders. Many families detest wars since they end up losing their loved ones. They not only feel a sense of loss when their loved ones die in the war, but they also feel that their country has let them down. War movies do not capture these sentim ents. They do not capture the fact that many of the soldiers would want to be safe with their families. They seem to promote the stereotypical view that men are supposed to be courageous and they should fight for defense. Anyone who does not hold this view is seen as a coward. American war movies do not fail to show the bond that the soldiers develop with each other. They show how the soldiers sacrifice their lives for each other, and the friendship and the closeness that they develop when in the danger zone. They show the wisdom, ingenuity, courage, obedience and heroism of the soldiers. They sometimes show the fear of the soldiers. These are not usually the true representation of the reality on the battleground. The movies fail to show the cowardice that some of the soldiers feel. They fail to show how the soldiers feel whenever they kill a person. Many of the movies with violent scenes show the soldiers killing each other mercilessly and without remorse. This is not usually the case, as the soldiers will usually prefer to use other methods of dealing with the enemy. The movies fail to show the poor decisions that often put the soldiers at risk. They fail to show how the soldiers panic and they end up betraying and killing each other in battle. The movie is less credible because it contains inadequate details of the event, and it concentrates on the positive attributes of the American soldiers.