Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft is exactly what is sounds like. The author presents the plight of Maria, a young woman who has escaped from terrible circumstances and abusive authority figures her entire life. Because she is a woman, however, she is ultimately subject to her husband, George's, will. He tracks her and her baby down, throws his wife in an insane asylum and keeps the child, eager to retain full legal control of his fortune alone. For her part, Maria falls in love surreptitiously within the hospital and discovers a richness in her internal world.
Wollstonecraft does an excellent job not only presenting how women in another time were severely oppressed, but she manages to distinguish Maria's circumstances from her identity. Although she is weak and ill-equipped in society, she possesses a sharp mind and a solid resolve. Maria is a force to be reckoned with even if she is given no authority or recognition from her exterior world. She manages to retain dignity in the most trying of circumstances, even to thrive. This is the power of Wollstonecraft's novel which highlights the dichotomy between how women were treated and what they are capable of doing.
