ABSTRACT
Lured by the promise of fulfilling her utopian dream, Mary Wollstonecraft follows Rousseau into his land of chimeras. Rousseau teaches us, “We are so to speak, born twice . . . once for our species and once for our sex” (Emile, 211). The equality and independence of human beings is to be achieved by properly combining these two parts, the human and the sex. Contrary to his critics’ claim that Rousseau pursues a chimera or fanciful vision, he insists that human beings’ nature ought to be whole and unfractured by the vicious passions, which emerge in civil society. Rousseau promises the readers of the Emile that he will educate his young pupil to be whole and independent. By following Rousseau into the land of chimeras, Wollstonecraft hopes that Roussseau will introduce her to woman who is also whole, free from public opinion, and despite her physical differences, equal to man. As we have seen in the first chapter, Wollstonecraft learns from reading Rousseau’s Emile that the female sex can have salutary effects on the individual woman and the family, as well as the political community. From the outset of her most famous treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft follows Rousseau by urging women to eschew their corrupt, selfish pleasures. In the dedicatory letter, Wollstonecraft urges women to foster natural inclinations, which make them tender, dutiful wives and mothers. As a consequence, Wollstonecraft hopes that women will become virtuous and important members of the political community. The happiness of women and the political reform Wollstonecraft advocates depends largely on the differences between men and women.
