Question 2

I agree with Liz- Wollstonecraft's goal is to convey her irritation at society's standard's for women. In Chapter II, she mentions "Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives." Essentially, a woman is never given any other alternative to being a housewife, given away to cook, clean, and serve her husband in any way he asks. This brings me to another one of Wollstonecraft's interesting points, also in Chapter II. She acknowledges something I probably would not have considered had she not mentioned it-the idea that a husband will eventually grow unresponsive to his loving wife's faithful service when she goes about serving him and pleasing him day after day, year after year. This of course would lead her to search for another man who would be more receptive and responsive to her doting behavior. After all, this woman was taught from her girlhood that she was meant to please men, and if she was no longer pleasing her husband, shouldn't she at least try to please another man? Interestingly enough, a little research into Mary Wollstonecraft's life led to the discovery that she herself had a love affair with Gilbert Imlay (resulting in a daughter, Fanny) and an affair with William Godwin (which resulted in the birth of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.) She was never actually married. Perhaps this excerpt from Vindications offers a clue as to why.