February 6th
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- Who was Gilbert Imlay and what do you think of Wollstonecraft’s relationship with him during her time in Paris?
- To what extent do her first experiences with sexual love, marriage, and parenthood fit her writings on these subjects prior to 1793-4?
- How does Wollstonecraft fare during the Terror compared to her other expatriate friends?
- Who was Talleyrand and why did Wollstonecraft dedicate the Rights of Woman to him? (67-70)
- How do the dedication and introduction to the Rights of Woman function as political frames for the entire text? What political arguments are made in these “frames”? (67-78)
- Why does Wollstonecraft draw a distinction between “first principles” and “prejudices?” (79)
- What are her “first principles” in her account of human nature? (79)
- What “rights and duties” of mankind does she deduce from these principles? (79)
- What is her critique of the current state of European civilization? How does she aim to correct its current ailments? (80-86)
- What different kinds of hierarchy does Wollstonecraft identify as dangerous for humanity? (80-86)
- What allusions to Rousseau’s First Discourse and Second Discourse do you see in this opening chapter of the Rights of Woman? Why is Rousseau important for Wollstonecraft’s argument?
- If you had to sum up the argumentative structure and purpose of the first chapter, how would you do it?
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by the Contributing Authors.
Cite/attribute Resource.
Botting, E. H. (2007, February 22). February 6th. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/political-science/mary-wollstonecraft-and-mary-shelley/discussion-questions/february-6th.
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