Unit 1 Blog: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft was an amazing writer with a wonderful rhetoric style. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft uses empathy, logical reasoning, and emotion to persuade readers that women should be treated with the same intellectual regard as men. She points out that women can become more virtuous if they are independent and come up with their own ideas (Wollstonecraft chap. 2 par. 6). Wollstonecraft says, “In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason” (chap. 2 par. 11). She is quoting another philosopher, Rousseau, who said this statement in reference to men. Wollstonecraft points out that she also extends this statement to women (chap. 2 par. 11). She also uses logic to convince the male readers that an educated woman could benefit them. She explains that if a woman is allowed to exercise their minds than they can become their husband’s confident, rather than they’re dependent (chap. 2 par. 41). She attempts to appeal to men by explaining that if women were allowed to think more freely they would find them more appealing. She also empathizes with men by stating, “That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances, is, I think clear “ (Wollstonecraft chap. 4 par. 1). She further explains that although women may be proved to be weaker than man, then that is all the more reason for them to receive a proper education (Wollstonecraft chap. 3 par. 9). Wollstonecraft also explains how having an uneducated mother can affect a child. She further explains that children are not given the proper attention. Wollstonecraft points out that natural affection and sympathy cannot be developed when a mother, “sends her babe to a nurse, and only takes it from a nurse to send it to a school” (chap. 10 par. 7). Although Wollstonecraft does attempt to empathize with men, she does not hesitate to use forceful language to make her reasoning understood. You can get a sense of her bitterness and anger in some of the language that she uses. Wollstonecraft argues that, “men who can be gratified by the fawning fondness of spaniel-like affection, have not much delicacy, for love is not to be bought, in any sense of the words, its silken wings are instantly shriveled up when any thing besides a return in kind is sought” (chap. 9 par. 4). When she describes the fondness of a woman comparable to that of a dog you can almost feel her disgust. She also later compares the intellectual boundaries that are placed on women as chains that are held there by men (chap. 9 par. 34). Mary Wollstonecraft’s rhetorical style seems to employ many different methods of rhetoric to persuade her reader. I believe that her use of emotion, logic, and showing her empathy for the opposing side, makes her argument very persuasive.

Works cited

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Boston: Peter Edes

for Thomas and Andrews, 1792. Bartelby.com. Web. 11 December 2009.