Women in the Family

In Mary Wolllstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, she constantly addresses the issue of a woman. Whether they be in the work force, the family, or in the social scene. I find it most interesting, though, when these issues are concentrated within the family. The relationship between a husband and wife starts with love, but there is an eventual natural death of love. "She secures her husband's respect before it is necessary to exert mean arts to please him and feed a dying flame, which nature doomed to expire when the object became familiar, when friendship and forbearance take place of a more ardent affection" (54). When this love dies, though, the two keep a "domestic peace" between them, and I believe that this is necessary for the family to continue on and exert virtues onto their children. But if there is no husband, Wollstonecraft explains how a widow focuses all of her love and attention of her children. "She lives to see the virtues which she endeavoured to plant on principles, fixed into habits, to see her children attain a strength of character sufficient to enable them to endure adversity without forgetting their mother's example" (55). To me, this seems like a huge responsibility for a mother, and extremely hard, considering the era that this book was written in. Women were so limited in the 18th century, and I don't know how Wollstonecraft thought that a widow could be a perfect example for her children. Nobody is perfect, we all have our issues and we all make mistakes. So how Wollstonecraft put this need to be perfect on women is astonishing to me.