THE WIFE ABUSE IN MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S MARIA: THE WRONGS OF WOMAN ACCORDING TO OFFENDING THEORY

Abstract

Among the books written in the 18th century are The Wrongs of Woman, also known as Maria, a feminist classic. Wollstonecraft's philosophical and gothic tale tells the story of a lady locked up in an asylum after being committed by her husband. Focusing on societal rather than individual injustices against women, Wollstonecraft attacks what she sees as the patriarchal institution of marriage in eighteenth-century Britain and the legal system that defends it. This study attempts to utilize Wollstonecraft's offending theory to analyze the marital abuse of the wife in her book The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. When Maria wakes up in the wrong marriage, she attempts to escape but ends up locked up in an institution instead. She meets Henry Darnford, a sensible man who leads a chaotic life, and Jemima, the warden, a woman molested as a child. A cliffhanger conclusion with several plot twists is built up when Maria falls in love with Henry. This paper will examine Mary Wollstonecraft's "Maria or The Wrongs of Woman" and its themes of domestic violence against women. In conclusion, The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria, was intended to be read and comprehended in a way that would be both personally therapeutic and historically significant because of the story it tells about women's lives in a patriarchal and more oppressive capitalist society.