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• 1 media/Untitled_Artwork 2.jpg 2020-11-18T21:28:46-08:00 Wealth/ Generosity in Wollstonecraft 22 A main theme in the "Original Stories" plain 2020-12-08T22:06:04-08:00

  Why This Theme

  We have chosen to recognize the themes of wealth and generosity as "together" because Wollstonecraft encompasses the two similarly throughout "Original Stories. She offers perspectives on thinking about the way one spends money and how we can use our wealth to help others in need instead of ourselves. She motivates the idea of being thankful for the wealth that one has because not everyone is as fortunate and therefore we should be generous and help others. Among this idea, we see generosity included in the way one treats others according to ones privilege. 

  Wollstonecraft and Wealth/Class and Generosity

  The theme of wealth and social class appears many times throughout Original Stories. The text follows the narrative of Mrs. Mason, the governess sent to help guide the two wealthy middle-class girls, Mary and Caroline. Mary Wollstonecraft was a strong critique of unequal distribution amongst wealth and privilege, and expressed her concerns of consequences of lack of virtue and moral development as a result of this unequal distribution (Halledenius, 2014). The nature of Mary and Caroline alludes to Wollstonecraft's critical viewpoint of the wealthy middle and upper class as they are portrayed as quite selfish and acting with impulse, implying an aristocratic culture-- "The short-sighted impulse to gratify desires instantly, without reflecting on the consequences"(Moore, 1999). We see Wollstonecraft's position on wealth and privilege evident in Original Stories with Mrs. Mason's teachings for Mary and Caroline. In Chapter twelve, Mrs. Mason overhears Mary say to the maid assisting her, "I wonder at your impertinence, to talk thus to me-- do you know who you are speaking too?"(Wollstonecraft 89). Mrs. Mason corrects Mary's ignorance by reminding her the only reason she is assisted by her maid is because she is weak and that children are inferior to servants, "who act from the dictates of reason, and whose understandings are arrived at some degree of maturity" compared to children who must be assisted and governed till they reach any degree of independence (Wollstonecraft 90). 
  
  Wollstonecraft also highlights the extreme division between the lower and middle/upper classes by portraying very vivid pictures of the lifestyle of the lower class likely to strongly critique the class system. Therefore we see the most noticeable feature amongst the setting of the text is the poor (Moore, 1999). The vividness that Wollstonecraft depicts likely comes from memory of what she saw walking through London (Moore, 1999). See below the text from chapter twenty-four depicting the vividness of a family in the lower class.