ABSTRACT
This idea of conjoining the separated opposites in matter is often described as the ‘Chymicall Wedding’ and depicted in alchemical emblems as a coitus, often between a naked king and queen. Ironically, however, Godwin’s representation of their relationship drew on the language of perfect complementarity attacked by Wollstonecraft. He claimed that her passion balanced his reason, her typically female feeling his masculine thinking. Shortly after Wollstonecraft’s death also, Godwin began another gothic novel, which united and extended some of his concerns in Caleb Williams and hers in Maria, and which included portraits both of his wife and of marriage as an ideal. The modern world reveals, however, a fear of women and the home it creates as an ideal separate from the public sphere. As part of its reaction against Catholicism, Protestantism stressed the importance of active daily life in the public sphere as opposed to a contemplative life isolated from it.
