Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman

Monday 4/6
I liked the novella Wrongs of Woman more than the Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Although the ideas put forward in the Rights of Woman are all well-stated and interesting, the reading is just a bit dry. Wrongs of Woman, however, was much more of a "page-turner" as I found myself wanting to know what would happen to Maria. Now, superficially, it may seem that just because the Wrongs of Woman is easier to read, its words also carry less meaning. I definitely found that this was not the case. When reading a novella (instead of a proclamation of a treatise) you just have to look beyond the plot-oriented words and find the deeper meaning. This was true of Wrongs of Woman. In the novel's ending, for example, one is left to contemplate whether the individual desire for suicide is justified and more important than the necessity of staying alive to take care of one's children. If this were a proclamation, the "right" answer would simply be declared.