Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman - Themes - Autobiographical Elements

Autobiographical Elements

Like Wollstonecraft's first novel, Mary: A Fiction, The Wrongs of Woman is heavily autobiographical; the two novels even repeat many of the same biographical details. After being abandoned by her lover and the father of her child, Gilbert Imlay (the model for Darnford), Wollstonecraft attempted to commit suicide. Her despair over these events is written into the book as well as many other experiences from the mid-1790s. Moreover, Maria Venables's family history shows clear similarities to Wollstonecraft's own. Like Maria, Wollstonecraft had a mother who favored an elder brother and she also devotedly cared for that mother during her dying days, only to be pushed away during the final moments of her life. Wollstonecraft also looked after her sisters like Maria does, albeit without the help of a wealthy uncle. Perhaps most strikingly, Wollstonecraft's sister Eliza left her husband, at Wollstonecraft's prodding, much as Maria leaves hers. As Kelly explains, autobiography is common in Jacobin novels. Philosophical novels were expected to be autobiographical; audiences believed that the philosophizing novelists would draw on their own experiences in order to illustrate their abstract principles.