Vindicating Women Through Works of Fiction
File(s)
Date
2016-09-30Author
McClyman, Jennifer J.
Advisor(s)
Manning, Pascale
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Mary Wollstonecraft’s pamphlet A Vindication of the Rights of Woman has
received a vast amount of recognition since its publication in 1792. My thesis surveys
how three novels – Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman; or Maria, Amelia Alderson
Opie’s Adeline Mowbray; or the Mother and the Daughter, and Helen Craik’s Stella of
the North; or, the Foundling of the Ship – align with Wollstonecraft’s political arguments
in Vindication. I survey how each text, in its own unique way, negotiates
Wollstonecraft’s philosophy, and I argue that each novel both asserts the need for a more
formal education for women and advocates for the improvement of women’s position in
society. I suggest that through their works of fiction all three women authors may be seen
to speak to their female audiences, encouraging them to challenge current educational
practices and to work together for change to occur. I contend that these novels did not
just serve as tales of either struggling or flourishing women; instead, these texts had the
potential to transform readers’ minds by providing examples of both struggling and
strong women as a means to effect social change. Furthermore, I argue that all three texts
establish the need for a sense of community, or unity, amongst women. In such a society
women might embrace their education and support one another rather than engage in
distracting rivalries with one another that deter their intellectual advancement.
Throughout, I maintain that the groundbreaking philosophy Wollstonecraft articulates in
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman lives on through fictional stories that were all
designed to revolutionize the social hierarchy of society and to ensure a better life for
women overall.
Subject
Social Change
Feminism
Women's rights
Women in literature
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/75355Description
A Thesis Submitted
In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts-English