3G06B lecture notes

March 28th, 2017

 Over throwing the monarchy – one of the goals of French revolution

 Mary Wollstencraft
o Wrote “letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway
and Denmark.” (1796)
o Appealed to natural law in support of the revolution , as well as in her
arguments about the ‘natural’ rights of women
o Deeply dissolutioned by the consequences of the French revolution
o Written after an attempted suicide, her letters reflect a double
dissolutionment – with the revolution and with her increasingly
distant lover (Gilroy Imlay, to whom the letters are addressed.)
o Here published letters were an important influence on the genre of
romanticism.
 “the lieutenant informed me that this was commodious bay…expanded my
heart.” (1)
 a strong relectucance to fully allow herself to embrace nature through the
letters
o humans are too imperfect to embrace it
o seen also with cooper and finch – the idea that nature is too pure for
humanity
o humans as unnatural or ‘alien’ beings
o her sense of humanness dissipates towards the end
 possibly because she loved deeply and was then heartbroken
 “my compassions fell asleep…who reluctantly shook off sleep.” (2)
o humans could never sustain this connection with nature, it was too
delicate and impossible
 nature can also be depressing, and it has natural fluctuations to it (quote on
slide page (2-3)
 desire to commune with nature, but a realization that it can be dangerous
physically and politically
 “reaching the cascade…speck of life to come” (4)
o comes to a waterfall
o stretches her hand out to eternity, over her sad life,