Essay Questions

What is Wollstonecraft's main objection to the views of Edmund Burke?

Wollstonecraft has a number of objections to Burke, the chief of which is his view of women. She contends that he is so taken with Marie Antoinette both because of her beauty, and because he sees a weakness in that beauty which makes her seem like a glorified damsel in distress. Wollstonecraft wants women to be seen as something far more than a pleasant aesthetic. She contends that women are equal to men on every level, but they lack the opportunity for education that would propel them to the same positions as men.

She also feels that emphasizing the beauty of women, such as Marie Antoinette, is to completely ignore their morality, or what she sees as lack thereof in the French queen. She would like women to be viewed for their morality and their moral rectitude rather than for what nature gave them that they had nothing to do with earning for themselves.

What does Wollstonecraft's Utopian society look like?

Wollstonecraft's Utopia is based on her vision of what a society created by God would look like. It would be based around the family unit, and anyone who did not have a family would be supported by a network of others who enabled them to act as if they were a part of something bigger than their own self. In this way she feels that the individual needs would be suppressed and a concern for society would become more important

Wollstonecraft also visualizes a society where each family would be given land, that they would farm themselves, All would have what they needed and there would be an emphasis on entrepreneurship, both for men and women.