The Importance of Class Within Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman
The Importance of Class Within Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman
Meg Strauss
13 December 2016
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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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
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
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
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
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
How often have I heardin conversation, and read in books, that every person
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
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
(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)
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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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,
Diane Long Hoeveler, in her essay titled Reading the Wound: Wollstonecrafts
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
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,
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).
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
Works Cited
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.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman. New York: Norton, 1975.
Print.