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Meg Strauss

Professor Aparna Gollapudi

English 331 Paper 3

13 December 2016

The Importance of Class within Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman

Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, written by Mary Wollstonecraft and published

in 1798, is one of literatures first and most important feminist pieces. Though remained

incomplete due to her death in 1797, Wollstonecraft highlights the undeniable oppression

of women within late sixteenth century English society. The story focuses around two

women: Maria, a woman of upper-middle class, and Jemima, a working class woman

born into the lower-class. In this paper, I will argue that Wollstonecraft purposely

incorporates two vastly different characters of two separate classes in order to prove that

gender oppression is displayed in all of womens lives, regardless of social and class

placement.

In the start of the story, the reader is introduced to the two women. Maria, the first

chapter reveals, is imprisoned in a private insane asylum, while Jemima is her keeper.

The two women almost immediately start a friendship. Maria describes Jemimas

presence as, a gleam of light to break the gloom of idleness (Wollstonecraft, 7).
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While it seems as though Jemima is at first hesitant to indulge in a friendship with

Maria, she decides to tell her new-found friend her own story after she begins to trust

Maria. The text states, And Jemima, after again patrolling the passage, was so softened

by the air of confidence which breathed around her, that she voluntarily began an account

of herself (Wollstonecraft, 26.)

Jemima tells Maria that her mother became pregnant with her after her father

seduced her, leaving Jemima a bastard. When learning of the pregnancy, Jemimas father

married her mother, even though he did not want to. Jemima states, [My father] began to

hate, as well as despise me, before I was born (Wollstonecraft, 27). This hatred would

turn into oppression throughout Jemimas entire life.

Jemimas mother died shortly after Jemima was born, and her father sent her to

live with a nurse. When Jemimas father got remarried, her step-mother was insistent of

bringing Jemima back into the family, in order to alleviate the cost of Jemimas nurse, as

well as provide free childcare to Jemimas new baby sister.

Jemima tells Maria of the horridness of moving back in with her father. Jemimas

step-mother treated her terribly, and her own father ended up raping Jemima. Upon

seeing Jemima and her father together, Jemimas step-mother kicks her out of the house.

Jemima becomes pregnant with her fathers child and takes a pill to abort the baby.

Jemima then becomes a beggar on the street and ultimately a prostitute. However, there

was happiness in Jemimas life as a male writer takes her under her care. Unfortunately,

the man dies and Jemima is once again left on the street. Jemima begins to wash tubs, and

ends up working for man that offers her the job at the private asylum.
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Maria, on the other hand, has a completely different story from Jemima. Maria

was born into an upper-middle class family. Though her parents were not always the

most affectionate, poverty was never a part of Marias childhood. When she was a

teenager, her uncle, though thinking it was a good idea at the time, sells Maria to a local

merchants son, George. George and Maria get married, without Maria knowing that

in London, George had acquired habits of libertinism (Wollstonecraft, 50).

Maria lived unhappily with George for six years, and in the last year of living

together, Maria got pregnant. One night, one of Georges friends comes over to dinner

and handed Maria a note, written by George, stating that he would be willing to sell

Maria to his friend. Upon hearing this, Maria left George and spent the next remaining

years with her baby running and hiding away from George.

Maria is about to leave England when George finds Maria and her baby and takes

the baby away from Maria and locks Maria inside of the asylum. In the asylum, Maria

asks Jemima to discover the fate of her baby. Jemima tells Maria that her baby has died.

Maria tells Jemima, It is enough--I know that my babe is no more--I will hear the

particulars when I am"--calmer, she could not utter; and Jemima, without importuning

her by idle attempts to console her, left the room (Wollstonecraft, 44).

Within the story, the reader becomes deeply associated with both Maria and

Jemimas stories. Though their stories and lives are extremely different due to the societal

class that each woman was born into, the stories correlate in the sense that both woman,

throughout their entire lives, were oppressed by society and men in general.
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For instance, Jamima taught herself how to read and write. She became very

educated, however, she states that it was still very difficult for her to find work due to her

gender. Jemima states,

How often have I heardin conversation, and read in books, that every person

willing to work may find employment? It is the vague assertion, I believe, of

insensible indolence, when it relates to men; but, with respect to women, I am

sure of its fallacy, unless they will submit to the most menial bodily labour; and

even to be employed at hard labour is out of the reach of many, whose reputation

misfortune or folly has tainted (Wollstonecraft, 36).

For Jemima, her oppression by men was seen most vividly in regards to how she

was treated by her father. Jemima states, I was, in fact, born a slave, and chained by

infamy to slavery during the whole of existence, without having any companions to

alleviate it by sympathy, or teach me how to rise above it by their example

(Wollstonecraft, 30).

On the other hand, Marias oppression was seen in how she was treated by her

husband. Maria, too, compares herself to a slave. She states, "Married when scarcely

able to distinguish the nature of the engagement, I yet submitted to the rigid laws which

enslave women, and obeyed the man whom I could no longer love (Wollstonecraft, 101)

By clearly having both female characters to feel oppressed, Wollstonecraft allows

the reader to understand that female oppression happens in all realms of society. In fact,

in the prefix of the story, Wollstonecraft states, This is what I have in view; and to show

the wrongs of different classes of women, equally oppressive, though, from the difference
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of education, necessarily various (Wollstonecraft, 3). In other words, Wollstonecraft

purposely incorporates two woman, both of whom from different classes, into her story.

The author does this in order to prove that while oppression can be seen in various ways,

it still happens to woman of the rich and woman of the poor.

Diane Long Hoeveler, in her essay titled Reading the Wound: Wollstonecrafts

Wrongs of Woman, Or Maria and Trauma Theory, states, [Wollstonecraft] accomplishes

two aims with this thesis: first, she reveals that the sexual oppression of women cuts across class

lines and, secondly, she highlights the importance of education for women as a way of escape

from degradation and exploitation (Hoeveler, 11)

Hoeveler also states, Wollstonecraft also revealed that for women of all classes,

life really was the way it was depicted in sentimental fiction-a series of insults,

humiliations, deprivations, beatings, and fatal or near-fatal disasters (Hoeveler, 1). In

other words, all of these experiences mentioned by Hoeveler can be seen in both Maria

and Jamimas lives, even though they came from two different classes.

In this story, both Maria and Jamima are negatively affected by the British legal

system. For Jamima, she was forced into prostitution after her father raped and

abandoned her. Within the text, Jamima never once seeks help from the legal system,

leaving the story with hints that the legal system also oppresses women.

For Maria, the legal system clearly oppressed her as he was legally property of

her husband, thus he could steal their baby and lock Maria away inside an asylum. The

legal system also oppresses Maria towards the end of the story when Maria wants to

marry Darnford, a man she met in the asylum. George is able to sue Darnford for adultery

and seduction.
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Author Urska Podmenik addresses the oppressed British legal system in her essay.

The author states, Mary uses her ideas, such as the belief that there is no fundamental

difference between women and men, what matters is education and experience, and that

the British legal system converts women into slaves, when they marry; and turns them

into a work of fiction, so they may be understood by the lower classes as well

(Podmenik 13).

Throughout Wollstonecrafts text, the theme of oppressed woman is on full

display. By using two woman of opposite classes, Wollstonecraft further implements that

theme. The two woman ultimately become symbols of the various levels of oppression

created by men and society. By adding these two characters, Wollstonecraft allows the

reader to know that oppression does not happen in one class; rather oppression happens in

all classes within society.

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Works Cited

Hoeveler, Diane. "Reading the Wound: Wollstonecraft S The Wrongs of Woman, or

Mariaand Trauma Theory." Marquette University. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Podmenik, Urska. "Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman." Academia.edu - Share Research.

N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman. New York: Norton, 1975.

Print.