Interview
Q: What was the time and place that you lived in like?
A: I was born on April 27th, 1759 in Spitalfields, London during the Enlightenment period (Brittanica, 2015). My father was abusive to my mother and spent all of our money trying (and failing) to become a farmer (Stanford, 2013). We followed him all around Britain, and by the time my mother died, in 1780, we had moved six different times (Kreis, 2000). During my lifetime, women were treated unfairly. They were basically pretty objects to be kept in the home and didn't have half of the rights men had.
In 1792 I set off for Paris, where the French Revolution was coming to a close. When I arrived there, Robespierre's reign of terror was in full swing. There I became inspired to write An Historical and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution: and the effect it has Produced in Europe (Kreis, 2000).
Q: What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?
A: My brother was the only one of my siblings to get a formal education, so I had to get my knowledge elsewhere. I became friends with a retired Clergyman and his wife who helped me acquire my knowledge of Milton, Shakespeare, The Bible, and others (Stanford, 2013). They acted as parental figures to me and introduced me to my best friend Fanny Blood. Fanny and I later started a school together.
I became interested in women's rights at a very early age. My father was abusive to my mother, as I mentioned earlier, and I realized how he treated her was unfair (Burke, 2004). Men were never treated that way! I also realized at a young age the amount of jobs available for women are way fewer that the choices from men. Women had the choice to be a lady's helper, Schoolteacher, or a Governess. Men had a much larger selection, which I found unfair (Burke, 2004).
Q: What role did Mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?
A: I had a few mentors in my time as a writer. The first was the clergyman that I mentioned earlier. He gave me all of the knowledge of famous writers that I would later need to write my books. I read Shakespeare, The Bible and many others that inspired me to become a writer (Lindemann, 2014).
The other was Joseph Johnson (Todd, 2011). Joseph Johnson was a radical, progressive writer and publisher who hired me to write and translate other people's writing (Kreis, 2000). He inspired me to write radical pieces of writing like he did. He also introduced me to my Husband William Godwin, who also worked there as a radical writer (Wollstonecraft, 1787).
Q: What was the world of art like in writing when you entered it?
A: During the Enlightenment period, the period when I was active as a writer, writing for a change was really common. Most writing was nonfiction and aimed to enlighten, inform, people about a certain subject (McLure). Most writers, before me, wrote about government. Not many had written about Women's Rights like I did (University of Nevada, Las Vegas). People wrote in ways that would inform people about a subject that they were not familiar with. For example, someone writing about science would not aim their writing toward a group of renowned scientists, they would point it to non-scientific common people.
The world of art had very few women in it (Burke, 2004). To be published they had to be given credit for their art. To get credit for a piece of writing, a woman had to get written consent from her husband before she was considered published. By the time I was writing and was getting published, publishers stopped caring about if women had the consent from their husbands and more women made a living by writing [21].
Q: How did the major cultural, economic and political situations of the time effect your work?
A: My whole life, women were viewed as inferior. The right to vote was held by mostly white men with property, because people thought that women were too weak, inferior, emotional, and childlike. The question was rising about if women had the same nature as men (Cattunar, 2014). If you weren't married, you didn't have any protection under the law, and if you were married you lost all of your identity. Women couldn't get a lawyer, sign a contract, inherit property or money, vote, or have any rights over their children (Powell, 1996).
I also reported on the French Revolution which, when I arrived in France, was in full swing. I saw Louis XVI be killed with the guillotine, and the rest of Robespierre's Reign of Terror. This inspired me to write The Historical and Moral View of The French Revolution [13]. This was one of the first pieces of travel writing anyone had ever done.
Q: What were your major accomplishments and methods you used in your art?
A: My most accomplished work was A Vindication of The Rights of Woman. It is recognized as the first piece of feminist writing [14]. In it I wrote about rights that women should have, like education. On the same topic I wrote my lesser known first piece, Thoughts on The Education of Daughters, a self help book for women [16].
I had a few methods in my writing. A Vindication of The Rights of Woman was written in a style much like an essay. Not the logical prose or formal argumentation common at the time. I also tried to make my work personal. I did this by using pronouns like "I" and "you" and incorporating exclamation points and dashes [15].
Q: What key opportunities did you have that lead to turning points in your art and life?
A: The opportunity to work with Mr. Joseph Johnson allowed me to publish my first book. He was not only a publisher but held a weekly dinner where radical thinkers, like myself, could share their ideas. I met many people there, Including American writer of the Common Sense Pamphlet Thomas Paine, William Blake, and most importantly, my future husband, William Godwin. He impacted my art as my initial publisher and my life by introducing me to my husband [17].
Another opportunity I had was to start a school with my friend Fanny Blood and my sister Everina. We opened it in Newington Green in 1784. Even though the school failed financially, and I was forced to close it, I learned a lot about teaching young women (Stanford, 2013). This experience started off my writing career by inspiring me to write my first book [16].
Q: What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome order to be an artist?
A: Few women before me had ever supported themselves as a writer, it was not a typical job for a woman. I tried being a ladies companion, a governess and a schoolteacher, but none of them worked out. It was hard to become something that was not common for your gender at the time. So that was a big roadblock that I overcame [18].
Another hardship I had was depression. After my first love Gilbert Ilmay went on a business trip and never came back, I overdosed. But I survived and returned home to England only to find that he was with another woman, a beautiful American actress. After finding this out I decided to jump off of a bridge and into the River Thames. A fisherman pulled me out and I was not at all grateful [19].
Q: What personal experiences best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?
A: I was always faithful to the Anglican Church but had Many friends who were against it. One of them was schoolteacher named John Hewlett. He encouraged me to write a pamphlet and submit it to Mr. Joseph Johnson, the publisher who I have mentioned many times already. I was homeless and short on money at the time and this suggestion gave me a job and brought me into the public eye (Powell, 1996).
Earlier in my life though, I realized that I wanted to be a writer when I quit my job as a governess. I worked for a woman who I could not get along with whatsoever. When I quit, I realized the few options of employment for a woman. I had already tried all of them and none of which seemed to work. so I decided to make a living being an author.
Q: How did your work impact the world of art?
A: I shaped travel writing with my book about the French Revolution (Stanford, 2013), but I don't think that I impacted art as much as the feminism movement. In art I did accomplish a few things, but my biggest accomplishments were in the feminism movement. I was the first feminist and set the stage for romantic feminism.
My book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman has been Mentioned In multiple Women's Rights demonstrations, in multiple different countries. I started the fight for equal rights and while my legacy may not be in the arts but I hope that as long as women and men are unequal it will live on [20].
Sources
[2] http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/wollstonecraft.html
[3] http://infed.org/mobi/mary-wollstonecraft-on-education/
[4] http://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft
[5] http://www.societyforthestudyofwomenphilosophers.org/Mary_Wollstonecraft.html
[6] http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml
[7] http://theamericanreader.com/24-december-1787-mary-wollstonecraft-to-joseph-johnson/
[8] http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/Worksheet%20on%20the%20Age%20of%20Reason.htm
[9] https://faculty.unlv.edu/kirschen/handouts/Enlightenment.html
[10] http://www.historydoctor.net/Advanced%20Placement%20European%20History/Notes/ enlightenment_(1).html
[11] http://www.hsnsw.asn.au/articles/WomenOfTheEnlightenment.pdf
[12] http://fee.org/freeman/mary-wollstonecraft-equal-rights-for-women/
[13] http://www.womenwriters.nl/index.php/Mary_Wollstonecraft
[14] http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1247&context=ijls
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Woman
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_on_the_Education_of_Daughters#Themes
[17] http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Wollston/bio.html
[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#.22The_first_of_a_new_genus.22
[19] http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/04/28/mary-wollstonecraft-was-the-original-bad-feminist/
[20] http://www.csun.edu/~djl73050/ws300/legacy.html
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Enlightenment#Women_In_Print
