Or, A Young Lady’s Entrance into the World In a Series of Letters

 Marriage and family as the primary rewards of a woman’s life.  It was believed that knowledge denoted experiences, and therefore potential, if not actual, corruption.  Women were counters to use through negotiating rather than individuals deserving of choice.

 Therefore knowledge equalled corruption, and women were deferred from exercising their minds altogether.  The ideal developed about women being the “Angel of the House” and being a queen and ruler of the domestic realm.  And so innocence was extremely attractive for a man choosing a woman, so that she would be passive (so as not to jeopardize his investments), innocent (so that she is not corrupt) and ignorant so that they may uphold the ideologies and norms of high society.

Popular belief in the 18 th century connected hysteria to the womb. It was believed that conditions such as hysteria and depression were derived from the female reproductive organs. Women were deferred from getting an education because to exercise their minds would make the blood from their womb go to their brains, and would either leave them hysteric, with depression, or they would be unable to reproduce.

 Similarly, Wandering Womb syndrome was believed to occur when a woman exercised her brain to the extent that her womb would become loose within her body, and cause complete physical dysfunction

 Although education for men in the eighteenth century would not be strictly studying academia they would study the classical languages and literature as well subjects like philosophy.  Though many gentlemen of this day and age were “educated”, this act was considerably impractical, as it was the definition of a gentleman that he did not have to work for his living.

 For women in the eighteenth century,the focus of education was for moral and social instruction rather than for academic merit.  “Women were taught to read and often to write in English, and in addition they often studied French, needlework, a little geography, music, and dancing, but the classical languages or other serious studies were commonly thought to be not only unnecessary but very likely harmful to a woman's weaker mind and to her marriage prospects”-

 Though Evelina would be considered an “educated” lady, in eighteenth century England she would not because although she is morally sound she is not aware of societal norms.  Evelina is judged on her appearance continually throughout this novel; due to her ambiguous social status gentlemen always assume she is of the same stature of whomever she is with.

 Evelina is described as being “An Angel!”, having “a good head on her shoulders”, and “her face and person answer my most refined ideas of complete beauty”.  When Evelina finally rejects Sir Clement Willoughby, he states “Is it possible you can be so cruel? Can your nature and your countenance be so totally opposite?”

 Mme. Duval is highly educated for her day and age, well socialized and wealthy. However, Mme. Duval is the most active female within this text, and is therefore portrayed in a negative light.  Captain Mirvan calls Mme. Duval “Madame Fury”.  Rev. Mr. Villars says about Mme. Duval:  “Her character, and the violence of her disposition, intimidate me from making the attempt [to argue with her]: she is too ignorant for instruction, too obstinate for entreaty, and too weak for reason”.P. 236

 Moll Flanders:  Moll’s main source of education is her experiences  The only form of education she receives is from the tutors that were teaching her master/mistresses’ daughters the usual “feminine education” (ie. Music, art, french)  Other than this though she mostly learns from her mistakes

 Like Evelina, Philadelphia and Pamela are both described as this innocent Lady sent out into the world  They seem to have many virtuous qualities, which is all that seems to matter to the men  However they are uneducated about anything other than morality and social activities and as a result they are both tricked by male figures at some point like Evelina is with Willoughby

 She wanted women to get a better education in reason, rather than purely one in sensibility  Her characters were often either had excessive Sensibility or excessive Reason, neither of which turn out well  Wollstonecraft wanted there to be a balance in both Sensibility and Reason, for both men and women.