Chhring N Sherpa

English 1121

prof. Penner

  1. Why is she writing this letter? What does she want from the recipient of the letter?
  • Mary Wollstonecraft is writing this letter to a lead person in the French revolution named Talleyrand-Perigord. Wollstonecraft is writing this letter to Talleyrand in order to make Talleyrand to consider women’s rights in the constitution. Mary wants to bring equality between both men and women in terms of working-class and political rights.

2. After reading this letter, how would you identify the DC that Wollstonecraft is a part of? Does the recipient appear to be a part of this DC or outside of it? (Really think about this!)

  • After reading this letter, I believe that Mary belongs to the feminist community since she is claiming various changes that prey women in a negative manner by society. Mary’s recipient belongs to both the feminist discourse community and the non-feminist community since she is fighting for equality for women which tells that she wants to change the nonfeminist’s manner towards women and also aims to bring changes in the attitude of how women think about themselves and what they deserve from society.

3. Find two moments (either a sentence or a paragraph) where Wollstonecraft’s writing strategy gets your attention, and think about how you might use these strategies as models for your own writing.

  • “The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity”.
  • Response – In here Mary is symbolizing the behavior of women with flowers. Flowers that are planted in rich soil have more strength which means that women who are engaged in early education will gain more knowledge and become strong mentally.
    • I found this useful since Symbolism makes writing truly creative and effective when we are comparing two unrelated matters and bring them together as a living matter.
  • “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, every thing else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives. Thus Milton describes our first frail mother; though when he tells us that women are formed for softness and sweet attractive grace, I cannot comprehend his meaning, unless … he meant to deprive us of souls, and insinuate that we were beings only designed by sweet attractive grace, and docile blind obedience, to gratify the senses of man when he can no longer soar on the wing of contemplation.”
  • Response – Inference strategy
  • – I find this useful since Mary is using evidence from other characters to prove and question more about the topic of gender. Here Mary is arguing about the personality of a woman. She is using a character named Milton to further disagree with his statement about women having a soft and sweet attitude. This writing strategy is helpful for me especially when I’m writing an essay since I can use other people’s voice as well in order to make my claim have better comprehension.