The Origins of Feminism: Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria
Telling a polemic story instead of writing a political essay has benefits as well as drawbacks. Novels allow first person accounts while essays may only allow third person accounts. A novel can lend a human aspect to the arguments a writer is trying to make. However, while reading a novel it is easier to distance yourself from the character which can be positive or negative. Wollstonecraft’s Maria is more effective in some ways than her previous essay, but still fails to take advantage of all the possible benefits of a novel. In her essay Wollstonecraft tries to encourage the reader to sympathize with the poor, but she is much more effective in enticing sympathy in her novel. The poor of Wollstonecraft’s essay are nameless, faceless creatures who may or may not deserve our sympathy. Perhaps these poor deserve their current life situations. In Maria these poor are given a name and a voice. Jemima is allowed to explain why she is poor and what causes her to act the way she does. While one might be tempted to cut off or refute an advocate arguing for the rights of the poor, such as Wollstonecraft, when the arguments are coming from an actual person trying to defend herself, it is much more difficult to dismiss what she is trying to say.