Comparing Mary Wollstonecraft's Letter To The Women Of England

Sharing Mary Wollstonecraft’s views on women’s place in society, Mary Darcy Robinson wrote Letter to the Women of England as a criticism of the social mores of the day. Robinson expresses her disillusionment with the institution of marriage, noting that: man may enjoy the convivial board, indulge the caprices of his nature; he may desert his home, violate his marriage vows, scoff at the moral laws that unite society, and set even religion at defiance, by oppressing the defenceless; while woman is condemned to bear the drudgery of domestic life, to vegetate in obscurity, to love where she abhors, to honour where she dispises, and to obey, while she shudders at subordination. (Robinson 10-11)

Robinson follows up this observation by criticizing

Women in this era who found their reputations tarnished found society to be particularly unforgiving; men, on the other hand, did not face such harsh judgements from society. Robinson writes that “what in man is laudable; in woman is deemed reprehensible, if not preposterous. What in man is noble daring, in woman is considered as the most vindictive persecution… The dastardly offender triumphs with impunity, because he is the noble creature man, and she a defenceless, persecuted woman” (Robinson 71-72). Social norms imposed on women (as seen in Mary Edgeworth’s “Letters of Julia and Caroline”) required that women remain free of all potential “blemishes”; female writers of this time period found their work being viewed through the particular lens of modesty and morality, and critics were happy to utilize their judgements on that point to color their opinion and attack works that failed to conform to society’s standards. As Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar note in The Madwoman in the

Romanticism. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.

Edgeworth, Maria. “Letters for Literary Ladies.” A Celebration of Women Writers. Ed. Mary Mark Ockerbloom. N.d. Digital Library, U. of Pennsylvania. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. London: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.

“Review of Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination; with Anecdotes by Anne Frances Randall.” Gentleman’s Magazine. April 1799: 311. Web: Romantic Circles Electronic Edition. Ed. Adriana Craciun, Anne Irmen Close, Megan Musgrave, and Orianne Smith. May 1998. Romantic Circles (U. of Maryland). 10 Oct. 2015.

Robinson, Mary Darby. “A Letter to the Women of England on the Injustice of Mental Insubordination, with Ancedotes.” Romantic Circles Electronic Edition. Ed. Adriana Craciun, Anne Irmen Close, Megan Musgrave, and Orianne Smith. May 1998. Romantic Circles (U. of Maryland). Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

Tomaselli, Sylvana. “Mary Wollstonecraft.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition). Ed. Edward N. Zalta. June 2014. Center for the Study of Language and Information (Stanford University). Web. 10 Oct.