Vindication Of Woman

In this passage from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft passionately describes the plight women face in an attempt to live a virtuous life. She finds that the overall presumption of society that women should only be striving for beauty it the main culprit hindering humanities forward movement towards “true virtue”. Along with the blaring passion resonating throughout the passage, the tone Wollstonecraft’s words elicits towards gender roles at the time is critical and negative. Wollstonecraft uses the rhetorical devices: similes, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical questions, to strengthen her argument to reform the expectations set for 18th century women in the book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Wollstonecraft uses

Wollstonecraft appeals to her audience’s logic when she calls out men out saying that “rational men” will excuse her for trying to persuade women to become “more masculine and respectable” (115). When this point is made by Wollstonecraft, it implies that those who do not agree with her argument are close-minded and irrational. This use of appeal to logic creates a strong statement to pull in more support in a way similar to the idiom “my way or the highway”. The application of the appeal in this case displays Wollstonecraft’s headstrong approach in her argument. Wollstonecraft’s use of appeals to emotion are apparent through her word choice near the end of the passage when she states how women have been “stripped of the virtues that should clothe humanity” (118). Throughout the last paragraph of the passage, Wollstonecraft uses phrases such as “obvious truths”, “should clothe humanity” and “short-lived tyranny”, which adds to the feeling that women’s rights as humans are being taken away and makes it heavier. These loaded words allow Wollstonecraft to end the passage with a lasting impact on the reader’s

After stating how women should be more “masculine”, Wollstonecraft questions how women would be able to “take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world” if women are basically treated the same as children (115). This use of rhetorical question tugs strongly at the emotions of the readers who are parents and want the best for their children, which could change the mind of some and gather more support for Wollstonecraft’s argument. By singling out the parents with the rhetorical question, the effect is stronger, so the chance of converting one to agree with Wollstonecraft is likely higher than if it were a generalized rhetorical question. Wollstonecraft asks another rhetorical question at the last paragraph of the passage, where she questions how can “the great art of pleasing be such a necessary study” (118). The use of rhetorical question in this situation reitterates how foolish it seems to Wollstonecraft that society puts the highest importance on looking beautiful for women. All through this passage, Wollstonecraft makes it seem like she is completely baffled by how the societal system is so that women become weak and useless as they grow out of their beauty. Wollstonecraft’s recurring use of rhetorical questions serve a variety of purposes, such as to tug at the heartstrings of certain readers, or to just re-emphasize a point. In conclusion, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary