nds microcosmic expression. All that Wollstonecraft shows to be wrong with society in the ideas of Vindication, in terms of the abuse of women, is shown in dramatic form in Maria. If the ideas of Vindication do not reach the reader and cause him or her to awaken to the wrongs perpetrated against God and humanity (both male and female) by the repressive, patriarchal society, then perhaps that reader might be driven to rage at George's arrogant abusiveness or to compassion for the abused Maria.
Vindication certainly addresses the institution of marriage in the most critical terms. Women, she argues, are raised to see marriage as their primary goal and purpose in life, the only means to happiness. Whereas men are raised to consider which of many professions they might seek to pursue, women are taught to think only of marriage, which means thinking only of what they can do to please and snare a man so that he might care for them and provide them with the pleasures of life:
It is not business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights of ambition, that engross [w
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