Mitzi Myers Criticism of Wollstonecrafts Maria Essay -- Literary Cri

Mitzi Myers' Criticism of Wollstonecraft's Maria In her article about Mary Wollstonecraft Mitzi Myers examines Maria in contrast to her other works, especially Mary and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in an effort to better understand the author and her purpose in writing. She refers to arguments posed by several critics in order to build her conclusions. She also seeks the insights provided by William Godwin's notes about Wollstonecraft. Myers calls her an "individualist and innovator in her fiction and aesthetic theory as well as in her polemical tracts," and admits that "Wollstonecraft confronts, though she does not solve, the problem of integrating a rational feminist program with one woman's subjective feminine vision (107). Mitzi Myers acknowledges that it was William Godwin's respect for Mary Wollstonecraft's work and his belief that her work of fiction might " 'have given a new impulse to the manners of a world' had the sketch equaled the conception" (107). Myers believes that Wollstonecraft kept her pledge to "finish the continuation [of The Rights of Women as] promised in the Advertisement" (107). Taken from Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft: ed. W. Clark Durant ( l 927), p.111, Myers cites "William's account of Wollstonecraft's protracted labors (more than twelve months for Maria versus six weeks for the Rights of Woman) . . ." Godwin relates, " . . . When she had finished what she intended for the first part [of Maria], she felt herself more urgently stimulated to revise and improve . . . than to proceed" (107). Just as "anti-Jacobin critics promptly attacked the novel as an apologia for a philosopher's wanton conduct" (l07), Myers feels that many modern biographers treat her attempt at a novel similarly, a... ...oes seem a fair assumption based on what seem to be her goals. Suggesting that we are left with a "mingling despair and hope, Wollstonecraft's hints for the ending comprise an oddly apposite do-it-yourself kit for the reader" (113). Myers seems to be suggesting that the story is stronger without an ending; from Wollstonecraft's vantage, allowing the reader the option of completing the story, provides her the advantage of making her statement while avoiding public criticism regarding the lesson, or even failure of achieving the optimum conclusion. For the modern reader, the unfinished story provides a glimpse of the society which produced Wollstonecraft and her 'feminist' ideas, but it also makes for interesting writing assignments and/or discussions. Works Cited Myers, Mitzi. "Unfinished Business: Wollstonecraft's Maria." The Wordsworth Circle 11 (1980) 107-14.