"A woman of quality, notorious for her gallantries, though as she still lived with her husband, nobody chose to place her in the class where she ought to have been place, made a point of treating with the most insulting contempt a poor timid creature, abashed by a sense of her former weakness, whom a neighboring gentleman had seduced and afterwards married. This woman had actually confounded virtue with reputation; and, I do believe, valued herself on the propriety of her behaviour before marriage, though when once settled to the satisfaction of her family, she and her lord were equally faithless,--so that the half alive heir to an immense estate came from heaven knows where" (Wollstonecraft 266).The first woman in this story admonishes the second for her past transgressions when the first woman is equally of ill repute. The second woman was seduced by her neighbor, but he decided to marry her even though by society's standards she was considered a fallen woman. He took responsibility for her situation. If he had not married her, she probably would have had to resort to prostitution to support herself. The first woman, on the other hand, was not faithful to her husband nor he to her. Knowing this, the first woman is a hypocrite. She is making the second woman feel awful about what happened even though she has no moral leg to stand on. Wollstonecraft makes the point that the first woman is confusing virtue with reputation. The first woman's reputations precedes her. She is known for cheating on her husband, whereas, the second woman seems to have repaired her reputation to some degree. By society's standards, it was not virtuous to have premarital sex, but the second woman has moved past that. The first woman's virtue and reputation are both ruined beyond repair, but she doesn't seem to acknowledge that. She merely holds herself above the other woman when, society believes that you should only have sex with your husband if you're going to have sex.
A person's reputation is determined by society. Even if a person is outwardly virtuous, they could in private lead a not so virtuous life. Reputation is determined by what the world sees not by what's actually happening. One misstep could ruin the reputation of a woman in the 18th century. If she was seen out in public with a strange man, that was a black mark on her reputation. People would speculate about what they were actually doing. Were they friends? Or friendlier than friends? This concept of perceived outward appearance plays an important role in Desmond. Wollstonecraft's focus in her treatise on reputation highlights this and can guide our understanding of reputation in Desmond. The reputation in question is Geraldine's. Although Desmond is trying to help her after she has been kicked out of her home he is only hurting the situation. As an unmarried man, he has no right to step in an aid a married woman. He is viewed as an interloper. Somebody who is taking advantage of a situation. People speculate. Especially Geraldine's mother. She is under the impression that she never went to France at all but is still in England. The reason that she stayed in England is she gave birth to Desmond's bastard child. This shows just how much reputation can effect opinion. Geraldine's mother believes the gossip she hears about her daughter so much so that she does not even try to ask her daughter about it. She automatically assumes that Geraldine and Desmond are playing house in the country with their new born. Reputation is the currency of that time period. The better your reputation is the more social cash you have. Geraldine is literally and figuratively running on empty. She literally has no money and her reputation is about as awful as it could be.
Here's an article about fallen women in art.
Why does Wollstonecraft call for the dissociation of virtue and reputation? How will that help women? Why is it something that needed to be reformed?
How is Geraldine's reputation affected by Verney being an awful husband? Why does her reputation matter? How does her public reputation differ from her private reputation?
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