57 pages • 1 hour read
Mary WollstonecraftMaria: or, The Wrongs of Woman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1798A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Volume 2, Chapters 9-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Volume 2, Chapter 9 Summary
Maria continues her narrative; after she and George got married, they moved to London, where she quickly started to see the flaws in her new husband’s character. For example, he refused to provide any money for Maria’s sisters. However, when Maria found out that George had significant debts, she rationalized that he might have actually been unable to help her sisters, not simply selfish. As Maria explains, “I was glad to find an excuse for his conduct to my sisters, and my mind became calmer” (108). For a while, Maria enjoyed her new life in London. However, she didn’t enjoy spending time with George and his friends, who were often preoccupied with flaunting their wealth and didn’t share Maria’s intellectual and artistic interests.
During the first five years of their marriage, George overspent and gambled, and Maria often borrowed money from her uncle in order to pay off his debts. Eventually, she refused to keep doing so, and after that, George became very cold and distant. By this time, he was openly having affairs with sex workers and lower-class women. Maria was also disgusted by George’s drunken and boorish behavior and appearance. Meanwhile, her father had married his mistress, and Maria’s two younger sisters could not tolerate living with their stepmother. Both girls were well-educated and willing to work hard, but a lack of employment opportunities for women left them with few choices. One of the sisters fell ill, and Maria had to beg George to allow her to nurse her sister on her deathbed. Maria also accidentally learned that George had an illegitimate daughter, whom he neglected and refused to support financially. Maria secretly began to provide money for the young girl herself.
Volume 2, Chapter 10 Summary
Concerned that her father was allowing her eldest brother complete control of the family finances, Maria went to her hometown to intervene. She was reinvigorated by the time spent in the country and was able to help her father, even though it left her on very bad terms with her brother. During the time that she was away, George began to behave much more respectfully and kindly. Although Maria was cautious, George continued to behave better when she returned to London, and the couple’s partial reconciliation led to Maria becoming pregnant.
Meanwhile, Maria’s uncle’s health had further declined, and he decided to move to Portugal in search of a warmer climate. Before he left England, he explained that, had Maria not become pregnant, he would have invited her to leave England with him. Her uncle did not believe that it was fair for it to be virtually impossible for women to exit a marriage, even if they suffer at the hands of their husbands. Maria’s uncle also acknowledges that women who leave their husbands are typically shunned by society, admitting that:
a woman […] resigning what is termed her natural protector (though he never was so, but in name) is despised and shunned, for asserting the independence of mind distinctive of a rational being, and spurning at slavery (117).
Volume 2, Chapter 11 Summary
When Maria’s uncle left England, he gifted her a substantial amount of money; Maria intended to use this money to look after herself and help her younger brother launch his career, but she was still naïve enough to tell George about the money. George ended up spending all of it, since, as her husband, he had legal access to all of her funds. Around the same time, a man named Mr. S began to spend a lot of time at Maria and George’s home. Mr. S was well-educated and charming, and he and Maria formed a friendship that was even flirtatious at times. Mr. S also explained to Maria the full extent of her husband’s financial ruin.
One evening, after dinner, George left Maria and Mr. S alone together. Mr. S made sexual overtures to Maria, who was shocked and outraged. She chastised him, but Mr. S explained that George had given him permission to seduce Maria. In fact, in exchange for George turning a blind eye to the prospective affair, Mr. S was going to provide George with money for his debts. Outraged, Maria went to her husband and asked if this was true. George readily admitted that he traded access to his wife in exchange for money.
With Mr. S as a witness, Maria removed her wedding ring and stated that henceforth she no longer considered herself married: “as solemnly as I took his name, I now abjure it” (120). She stated that she would provide for herself and her child. Enraged, George told her that she could not leave him and locked her in a room. Left alone, Maria reflected on her decision and became even more determined to end her marriage. When George came back, he was insistent that she not leave him; he told her that unless he could trust her not to leave the house, he would have to keep her locked up. Maria refused and remained locked up.
Volume 2, Chapter 12 Summary
Later that night and the next morning, George continued to try to persuade Maria to reconcile. He claimed that he was expecting a large sum of money that would resolve all of his financial difficulties, and he also stated that he thought he and Maria should have an open marriage. He claimed that he noticed Maria’s affection for Mr. S and merely wanted to encourage and facilitate a satisfying relationship for her: “why might not we, like many other married people, who were above vulgar prejudices, tacitly consent to let each other follow their own inclination?” (124). Later in the day, George left the house, and Maria seized her opportunity to flee. She gathered up a few items and hired a coach to drive her to a different part of London.
Maria had a hard time finding any lodgings that would accept a single woman; she eventually went to the shop of a woman whom she knew. Since Maria provided the woman with money and helped to set up the shop, she suspected that she would find help there. The woman reluctantly agreed to rent out rooms to Maria; she was trapped in an unhappy marriage herself, and her husband drank away all of the profits from her shop. Maria was concerned that the stress of her escape might lead to a miscarriage, so she stayed hidden in her new lodgings for the next several weeks. She planned to go to Portugal to live with her uncle as soon as she was healthy enough to travel.
One day, the shopkeeper came to Maria and showed her an ad placed in the newspaper: George was publicly advertising that Maria had run away from him and threatened legal action against anyone who might be helping her to evade him. The shopkeeper was afraid that her husband was going to turn Maria in. Maria managed to persuade the shopkeeper’s husband to let her stay for one more day; she found new lodgings and went there without telling the shopkeeper her new location. Maria also went to visit one of her uncle’s close friends and told him her story. He was sympathetic but unsure of what to do because Maria might go to Portugal only to find that her uncle had died. The uncle’s friend gave Maria some money and promised to tell her once he learned more about her uncle’s condition.
Volume 2, Chapter 13 Summary
Although Maria tried to stay secret in her new lodgings, George tracked her down. He bullied the landlady into admitting him into Maria’s rooms, and she reluctantly met with him. Maria stood firm, even though George had brought an attorney with him to put pressure on his legal claims. Their argument attracted the attention of a man staying at the lodging house, who came to see what the commotion was. The man advocated for Maria, and George and the attorney ended up leaving.
After they left, Maria told the landlady her story. The landlady was sympathetic as she had also suffered from an abusive and alcoholic husband herself. However, the consequences of this marriage meant that her life and business were financially precarious, and she could not afford the financial ruin of a lawsuit being brought against her for helping Maria. The landlady did help Maria find new lodgings, and she moved there. However, George continued to track Maria down at all of her subsequent lodgings. He only ceased when he became concerned about Maria’s health: The stress of the situation threatened to cause a miscarriage or premature labor. These events could cost Maria her life, and George knew that if Maria died before her uncle did, he would not be able to inherit any of the uncle’s money. If Maria was alive when her uncle died, she would be his heir, and George confidently believed that he would be able to persuade her to give him access to this money (Maria’s uncle had set up his will so that the money would be solely Maria’s, and George could not access it).
Meanwhile, Maria’s uncle had written to her: He planned to come to England as soon as the weather got warmer. Then, he, Maria, and her child would move together to Italy, and he would take care of them. This plan made Maria more hopeful, and she gave birth to her daughter. She loved her baby immediately, who “seemed my only tie to life, a cherub to whom I wished to be a father as well as a mother” (132). Only three days after her daughter was born, Maria’s brother came to see her and informed her that their uncle had died in Portugal. The uncle left all of his fortune to Maria’s child, with Maria as guardian. This arrangement gave Maria a high degree of financial independence. The brother was very angry because he felt that he should have received this inheritance. Maria was so distressed by the loss of her uncle that she fell ill.
Volume 2, Chapter 14 Summary
Once Maria recovered, she decided that she was still going to go to Italy with her child and began to plan for an extended trip. She provided money to her father and siblings, including enough money for her surviving sister to allow the young woman to get married. George’s attorney continued to torment her, threatening that if Maria wouldn’t give money to her estranged husband, George would take the baby from her. Maria gave George a modest sum of money in exchange for him signing a document that promised that he would not pursue Maria anymore.
It was finally time for her departure. Maria was going to travel by coach to Dover (a port city in England), sail from there to France, and travel onwards to Italy. She got in the coach with her baby and a maid she had hired, but she fell unconscious during the journey. Maria now believes that the maid was hired by George to drug her and steal the baby. She woke up just as the carriage was arriving at the asylum; she begged for help but was cruelly forced into the prison cell from which she is now narrating. Trapped there, she “perceived that I was buried alive” (135). Maria concludes her narrative by saying that she has been trapped in the asylum ever since.
Volume 2, Chapters 9-14 Analysis
Ironically, Maria’s hopes of securing independence and a peaceful home through marriage end up being completely dashed. Her life with George arguably leaves her more stifled and unhappy than she was while living with her father. Wollstonecraft writes frankly about Maria’s disdain and eventual disgust towards her husband: She refers to his “squalid appearance” (110) and how “the squeamishness of stomach alone, produced the last night’s intemperance, which he took no pains to conceal, destroyed my appetite” (110). These comments reveal that Maria’s desire and disgust respond to her husband’s physical appearance, implying that women are capable of sexual desire and deserve partners who inspire desire, or at the very least respect. Maria’s physical revulsion towards her legal husband also sets the stage for Wollstonecraft’s attempt to make Maria’s decision to pursue an alternative relationship with Darnford sympathetic to readers.
The class juxtaposition between Maria and Jemima impacts the different types of suffering they experience and recount during their respective narratives. While Jemima was often in physical danger, physically harmed, and living in extremely uncomfortable conditions, Maria’s suffering is more psychological. She spends her married life in relatively luxurious but emotionally empty settings, lamenting that “I perceived that I could not become the friend or confidant of my husband” (108). This quotation shows that Maria had developed expectations of a compatible and affectionate marriage, and the loneliness she feels while trapped in an unhappy marriage is a legitimate source of suffering for her. Jemima’s narrative is also quite dynamic, in contrast to Maria’s more static experience. While Jemima’s life was highly unstable, she continued to pursue new opportunities and ways of making her life better, indicating a certain hopefulness. Maria’s more socially circumscribed life leaves her with few options; she is nearly as trapped and passive within her unhappy marriage as she later is within the walls of the asylum.
The one advantage Maria does possess is the hope of financial independence, but legal systems that tend to grant husbands access and control over their wives’ money make this option precarious as well. Maria’s biology also renders her physically vulnerable and reflects a common experience shared by women from different classes across the novel: Getting pregnant leaves them with fewer options and less agency. Had Maria not fallen pregnant, she might have been able to flee England with her uncle. Her future child gives George a significant source of power over her since he would legally be able to seize custody of that child at any time. Reflecting on how trapped she felt at this juncture, Maria notes bitterly that “marriage had bastilled me for life” (115). The term “bastilled” here refers to an experience of being imprisoned and alludes to a famous French prison. The Bastille was stormed during the French Revolution in 1789 (an event still commemorated by the French national holiday of Bastille Day, celebrated on July 14), and alluding to marriage as akin to being imprisoned in the Bastille allows Wollstonecraft to hint that current laws and conventions around marriage are archaic and inappropriate in light of contemporary understandings of individual freedom.
After enduring much suffering, Maria reaches her breaking point when she learns that her husband has “sold” her to his friend. In Maria’s eyes, this action reflects an absolute control over her body and agency that she must reject. She tells George that “you dare now to insult me, by selling me to prostitution” (120). Maria’s outrage is revealed here to be partially motivated by stigma and shame; while sex work is presented fairly sympathetically in Jemima’s narrative as a tool for survival, a woman of Maria’s social class and education is revolted by the notion of being treated like a sex worker. George’s mistreatment also heightens the comparison of marriage to a form of slavery, in which women lose all control over their bodily autonomy and can literally be bought and sold. Maria’s uncle symbolically sold Maria at the start of her marriage by giving her husband a large sum of money as a dowry, and now he sees his wife as an asset to freely dispose of.
In light of her husband’s betrayal, Maria enacts a symbolic scene of divorce, or an inversion of a marriage scene, in which she insists on the presence of a witness while removing her wedding ring and stating that she no longer considers herself to be married. She enacts this scene formally and ritualistically by naming Mr. S as her witness and “lift[ing] my hands and eyes to heaven, ‘[…] as solemnly as I took his name, I now abjure it’” (120). While symbolically powerful, this scene is legally meaningless, which emphasizes how trapped Maria is. When she flees her home, she foreshadows her later desire to escape from the asylum; she also has to behave like a fugitive criminal, relentlessly pursued by a man who has social and legal sanctions to take her back under his control. Maria describes herself as being “hunted, like an infected beast” (131), using a simile to describe how dehumanizing her experience as a separated woman is.
Maria’s escape from her husband significantly changes her social status and brings her closer to some of the experiences Jemima has shared. Wollstonecraft thereby demonstrates that even wealthy women live precarious lives due to their lack of independence and legal rights. The minor characters that Maria encounters allow for additional examples of cross-class female solidarity and representations of unhappy marriages. The shop owner whom Maria appeals to suffers abuse and exploitation at the hands of her own husband; this experience leaves her sympathetic, but also powerless to truly help. Significantly, the only woman Maria encounters who is ever able to help her is Jemima, who has never been married. Through these subplots and minor characters, Wollstonecraft explores the idea that any heterosexual marriage that exists within a patriarchal system is virtually doomed to end up in injustice, exploitation, and unhappiness.
The virtually simultaneous birth of Maria’s child and death of her uncle (a parental figure in the novel) represents a new stage of her character development and maturity. Maria loses the one person who has looked out for her, but she gains significant financial independence that might allow her to live freely with her daughter, as well as a new purpose in life. Once she buys off George, Maria enjoys a short period of relative optimism in which it genuinely seems possible she will be able to escape to Italy and live independently with her daughter. At the time, Italy had a much lower cost of living and could be more socially liberal for the English ex-pats who moved there. It symbolically becomes a place of refuge in Maria’s imagination as she imagines landscapes where she has “escaped in the contemplation of the heart-enlarging virtues of antiquity, from the turmoil of cares that had depressed all the daring purposes of my soul” (132). This romanticized imagery shows that Maria is a sensitive, intellectual, and creative being who longs for a place where she can be surrounded by peace and beauty.
However, her hopes for future happiness function much like her romantic idealization of men: They blind her to reality. She lets down her guard with fatal consequences; cruelly, the person who finally traps Maria is a fellow woman. Maria is still awestruck by this detail: “[H]ow could a creature in a female form see me caress thee, and steal thee from my arms” (134). Her growing sense of solidarity with women ends up creating a deeper sense of betrayal. However, by this point, an astute reader will have the sense that the woman, paid by George to enact his cruel plan of drugging Maria and kidnapping the baby, may have had her own story and her own reasons for needing to participate in the plot. During her narrative, Maria describes herself as “born a woman—and born to suffer” (133), using her narrative to argue that women inevitably encounter pain and oppression in one form or another.
Related Titles
By Mary Wollstonecraft
