Reason and Sensibility: Artificial Constructions without Education

Chapter IV of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindications is titled "Observations on the State of Degradation to which Woman is Reduced by Various Causes," in which she takes a primary focus on the inferior position of women in society. Though this may seem obvious, given the societal norms of the Romantic period, she argues that when looking at Romantic society, the ideal woman contradicts the very tenets that she is expected to uphold. As we discussed last class, the submissive culture of marriage was problematic in relation to morality and virtue. Wollstonecraft states, "Women are not allowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves the name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them to have souls, that there is but one way appointed by Providence to lead mankind to either virtue of happiness" (126). Here, she is highlighting the contradictory and superficial nature of the expectations placed on women to be virtuous without sufficient knowledge of what virtue truly is, due to the deprivation of education.

Chapter IV is a continuation of Wollstonecraft's opinion of the hypocrisy of women's role in society that she expresses in the first three chapters we have read. However, instead of commenting on women as wives and the moral compasses of the family, she focuses on reason. Reason is an interesting topic during this time. Wollstonecraft wrote Vindications in 1792, a little over a decade after the end of the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. The Age of Enlightenment stressed the importance of free thinkers, education, individualism, and reason was to inform all areas of life. Equality, then, was reasonable, as it would allow all people to become more productive members of society. However, in order to be able to acquire reason, one must be rational, which women were not considered to be. 

To gain more of an understanding about the role of sensibility and reason in relation to the education of women, this source was useful. 

Unlike the Age of Enlightenment, the Romantic era focused on proper emotional response, or what was called sensibility. Rationality and sensibility seemed to be at odds with one another, but Wollstonecraft provides the common thread between the two, which is individuality. Both of the eras stressed the importance of self-betterment, and Wollstonecraft acknowledges that throughout the chapter. She says that, "Reason is, consequentially, the simple power of improvement; or, more properly speaking, of discerning truth. Every individual is in this respect a world in itself" (167). Therefore, in keeping with the ideals of the time, the oppression of women was not reasonable, as it didn't allow for the individual improvement of oneself. 

Ophelia, Milais

Speaking on this matter, she says, "... She has always been either a slave, or a despot, and to remark, that each of these situations equally retards the progress of reason" (169). This is a huge point that Wollstonecraft makes. She is first comparing women's place in society no better than that of a slave, since neither have personal identities. She is also commenting on the fact that this perception of women is an aged one, and slows the progress of society. Perhaps this refers to her previous chapters, where she stresses the importance of the education of women to advance not only themselves, but foster more intellectual conversation and thought in all realms of life. 

She then reverses the responsibility to be virtuous on men, stating that men should wished to be loved not only because he loved her, but because he himself was virtuous as well in valuing her mind over other frivolous attributes, for her sensibility as well as her reason (183). This is once again reminiscent of our discussion of Chapters I-III last class. Wollstonecraft concludes that the degradation of women is unreasonable and counterproductive against both Enlightened and Romantic ideals, and until women are given the right to equal education, no progress can be made.

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think that Wollstonecraft chose to discuss reason, a concept that was associated with the previous Age of Enlightenment, instead of sensibility in order to stress why women needed education
• Wollstonecraft ends Chapter IV by expressing that women have never really had a place in the societal system, but rather have been accessories to men in society. She also comments on how uneducated women slow the productivity of society. How do the two relate to each other? How does her definition of reason (reminder: individual betterment) serve as a solution to these perceived problems?