Between Fiction And Reality: The Performative Force In The Wrongs Of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft(1759-1797), is a famous English philosopher and educator of late eighteenth century, known as “the founder of the Modern Feminism”. The unfinished novel Maria or The Wrongs of Woman is regarded as the novel version and literary practice of her famous feminism work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. On the basis of her feminist thought, this dissertation deeply digs into the novel by analyzing how a fictional world is given the power to reflect on women’s actual issues and tries to find solutions.The performative force is a core concept in Speech Act Theory, which emphasizes the creative function of the language, that is, the performative function of language that can create a real world and influence the real society. The Wrongs of Woman with a first-person narrative is itself a macro-speech-act. And the utterances by the characters all expressed certain meanings and intentions with performative force. This thesis will study the performative force of the novel, which focuses on the suffering of women from all classes with all levels of representation and compassion. The Wrongs of Woman reflects the author’s thoughts on women’s financial independence, marriage and female education intending to exert influence on the society and female audiences.This thesis is divided into three chapters to explore how the performative force works in The Wrongs of Woman. Chapter One analyzes the performative force on financial independence. The lower class woman Jemima engages in all kinds of jobs in order to make a living. She lives under the lash of the task-mistress, works like a mule on over loaded back, but feeds with the refuse of the table. The heroine Maria’s sister, who comes from the middle-class is no better; she also does such a humble job as a governess. By exposing the oppression and the discrimination against women in the labor market, Mary Wollstonecraft reveals the deficiency of women’s freedom and rights in the male-dominated society, and advocates a relatively equal employment opportunity as she does in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Maria wants to be independent economically, but the law requires that all property be owned by husband after marriage, though she gets help from the rich uncle. So Maria flees home and rents a house outside there by seeking real economic independence. Chapter Two discusses the performative force on marriage. The union of Maria with her husband George is the result of desire, and this desire covers the true nature of her husband. As a wife, Maria wants to be a rational “good wife”, who is able to communicate with men in thoughts and actions, rather than through male’s desire. Wollstonecraft holds that sense is particularly important in marriage, because the rationality of marriage will subside the love fever, and achieve a good temperature. A marriage without mutual love and care is a “prison” even a “hell” to Wollstonecraft, so she advocates divorce is necessary for women. Maria files for divorce in the court as a sharp contrast to her mother and other tolerant women in marriage and this is an action that has a significant influence to women at that time. Chapter Three further analyzes the performative force on female education. Either Maria who comes from the middle class or the lower class women Jemima never receives any formal education. Mary Wollstonecraft advocates a nationwide education reform by applying the ideas of equal rights of education of men and women in the school system. Besides formal education, Wollstonecraft also stresses the importance of family education upon women’s intellectuality. Maria’s mother is a negative example who receives no education and is over-emotional even willing to bend to her husband’s will. She imparts the patriarchy-centered thought more forcefully to her daughter, whose unfortunate marriage to some degree is the result of such biased even false family education. So women, who are imprisoned in the field of family, can improve their status by means of both formal education, and appropriate family education. In this way, women could be independent and equal in thought and ability but not subservient to the men or helpers.By exposing women’s sufferings from all classes in the eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft demonstrated the importance of female education, and advocates women’s economic independence and autonomy of marriage rights. These thoughts already surpassed the bourgeoisie and the patriarchal ideology in the eighteenth century, which should be lauded for its strong revolutionary spirit and profound impact on later women novelists, the reform of marriage as well as improving women’s rights.