Sylvana Rincon

ENG 1121

September 16, 2020

  1. I believe she is trying to persuade the recipient to reconsider his view on woman’s education. She writes this letter to lay out the reasons why education should be extended to woman. Mary claims that the lack of education is the reason why women are carried out by vanity; they hold on to the vanity to attract the opposite sex. Wollstonecraft affirms that if education is provided to woman, man would fall for a woman because of affection and not because of looks; therefore, woman would not be focusing on vanity. In other words, she says that woman should not be judged or compared to man if she is being neglected education. Mary wants the recipient to understand that with education woman will be a better wife, mother and a moral person.
  2. I think Mary is not in the same DC as the recipient, she is pro woman right and education. She is trying to convince the recipient that the immorality and vanity of woman are a cause of the lack of education. She states that a woman can perform a better role as wife and mother if it is taught to her. She advocates for equality among both genders and she is pro-choice.  
  • “And how can woman be expected to cooperate if she doesn’t know why she ought to be virtuous?”

Questioning

The way she used a question caught my attention, because it makes the reader or recipient think about and probably and answer to him/her self.

  • “Surely, sir, you won’t say that a duty can be binding without being founded on reason! Arguments •for civil and political rights can be drawn •from reason; and with that splendid support, the more understanding women acquire the more they will be attached to their duty, understanding it. Unless they understand it—unless their morals are based on the same immutable principles as those of man—no authority can make them act virtuously. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.”

Persuasive

The author repeats the word “understand” to emphasize that woman need education to be able to act view thing the same way as men based on the principles she has been taught. She is trying to reinforce her argument by repeating the same word.