Anna Letitia Barbauld's The Rights Of Woman

The Romantic Period built an environment where women were painted with flowery diction (Wollstonecraft, 216) and were incapable of independence. The Rights of Woman became a crucial topic, particularly in poetry which allowed women the freedom of expression. Accordingly, during the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women writers did not need the prop of their male contemporaries like suggested. Evidently women were able, successful, and professional writers in their own right. In fact, women often influenced male writers (Dustin, 42). Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld are evidence that women did not need to rely on their male peers to become successful poets. In The Rights of Woman and Vindication of the Rights of …show more content…
Upon reading Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication, Anna Letitia Barbauld’s The Rights of Woman (48-49) is indubitably laced with satire and hyperbole. Henceforth, reflected in Barbauld’s misinterpretation of Wollstonecraft by being cynical and mocking. Barbauld’s mockery is evident in her language, like "Woman! Too long degraded, scorned, opprest" (l.2). According to Dustin, The Rights of Woman, only seems to reinforce Barbauld's antifeminist image (Dustin, 11) because Barbauld did not think women were oppressed. Upon the initial reading of the prose, Barbauld seems to agree with Wollstonecraft. Although, in the last two stanzas, the prose has a climacteric which clearly indicates her praise has been hyperbolic. Therefore, regarding Wollstonecraft, Barbauld reassures men that her pride will soon give way; and men will not have to fear women being ungrateful (l.27-28). Diction chiefly appears dramatic and passionate towards Wollstonecraft at first glance. Contrastingly, with the word “But” (l.25), a turning point is inferred; along with a re-evaluation of Barbauld’s reaction to Vindication. Certainly, the reading of “Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend; Thou mayst command, but never canst be free" (l.19-20) is contradictory once it is apparent Barbauld does not agree with Wollstonecraft – it goes from passionate appraisal to cynical mockery. Finally, within …show more content…
Women in the Romantic Period were not seen as standalone writers because they were constantly compared to their male peers. It is a natural instinct to compare a woman to man, and identify one as inferior. Wollstonecraft understands this and sought out to defer the idea of the woman’s inferiority, while Barbauld thinks women should be grateful for the superior man. To enumerate, Wollstonecraft and Barbauld came before Wordsworth and Coleridge, who took influence from their women counterparts – yet the males are still seen as superior. Evidently, by the time Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads in 1798 (Dustin, 3), Barbauld and Wollstonecraft had been publishing nearly thirty years prior (Dustin, 4). As a generalisation, this indicates the inferiority Wollstonecraft noted in women. Therefore, because poets and writers kept women in a state of childhood (217) – instead of asserting women in equal connotations to men – they added to the “flowery diction” (216). As a result, women were unable to dismantle their inferior portrayal. Consequently, Barbauld’s poem disregards, and misinterprets Wollstonecraft as ridiculous by comparing the hyperbolic battle of women’s rights to a war (l.12). Dustin provides an explanation which provides insight to Barbauld’s misinterpretation; Barbauld’s The Rights of Woman evidently reveals a