She Said What!?

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Recommended: The role of women in the Victorian era

She Said What!?
(an assessment on two radical views from women)
It’s 1800, the end of the Romantic Period. Women are seen as high valued objects, but just that. Past the point of marriage women are hardly seen as anything above servants. “Daily life for women in the early 1800s in Britain was that of many obligations and few choices.” says Kelley Smith in her article Historical Brief-Lives of Women in the early 1800s. They stay at home, the clean, they cook, they do the dishes, and they don’t have their own opinion. Then from nowhere comes to very intriguing poems. The first, from Jane Austen, On Making an Agreeable Marriage, comes from her person letters to her acquaintance Fanny Knight on November 1814. The second text, titled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, comes from Mary Wollstonecraft. Both these poems conjure up a very radical opinion of what a woman is and what a woman means or should mean. However, Mary Wollstonecraft’s text A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can be seen as the more radical text towards the view of women in her day because of the following: (1) Jane Austen’s text is a personal letter and is not for the purpose of proving her opinion, merrily conversing with an acquaintance, (2) Mary Wollstonecraft’s text states the flaws in the worldly opinion of women, and (3) Miss Wollstonecraft not only talks about woman’s status in London 1800, but the mens’ as well and all of its faults.
Jane Austen’s On Making an Agreeable Marriage is solely a letter to her acquaintance Fanny Knight and not her full honest opinion on the matter. The two of them are sending messages about a certain male individual that has made an appearance in Knight’s life. Line 27 on page 913 Austen says “My dearest Fanny, I am writing ...

... middle of paper ...

...ponsor.”states Jim Powell in his article Mary Wollstonecraft--Equal Rights for Women.
The idea of women being superior to men is completely unacceptable during the late 1700s early 1800s.
Two very unique and controversial texts that say a lot. On Making an Agreeable Marriage by Jane Austen manages to break the ice with her letter to her friend. And diving deep into unsafe water, Mary Wollstonecraft very bluntly states her opinion in A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Though both texts contradict greatly with the status quo, Mary Wollstonecraft’s attititude towards the situation is just asking for trouble. “It was a significant milestone in the arguments around women’s rights and has since become a feminist classic.” concludes YMCA George Williams College in their article Mary Wollstonecraft on Education about Wollstoncraft’s A Vindication on the Rights of Women.

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