ABSTRACT
Wollstonecraft attempted suicide twice, as far as we know. If one reads her letters, however, one finds that suicide was never far from her mind. It was Imlay’s betrayal of her that definitely pushed her over the edge. Now if one reads the latest biofiction on Wollstonecraft, Her Lost Words by Stephanie Marie Thornton (2023), the author pitches her suicide efforts as acts of heroism: Wollstonecraft thought that, by killing herself, she could force Imlay to assume responsibility for their daughter when Wollstonecraft seriously doubted that she would be able to raise her alone in a society that was hostile to natural children (children born out of wedlock) and that would not allow a woman to secure enough funds through work to support a family. This is a plausible theory, but given Wollstonecraft’s extreme depth of despondency at the time as well as her financial success with her publications and job as reviewer for Johnson’s Analytical Review, Thornton’s theory lacks credibility. This chapter analyzes Wollstonecraft’s thoughts and actions, upon her return to England, in attempting to commit suicide twice, and provides the then-current attitudes toward what was called “self-murder.” It also addresses a question that biographers have not considered: What happened to Wollstonecraft that gave her the will to endure after the failed attempts to kill herself?
