Feb
13
Questions for Godwin’s “Memoirs”
February 13, 2015 | 1 Comment
Having read Memoirs by William Godwin, the following questions resonated:
1. Described as a unique, strong willed and urgent person with many traits of genius, is Godwin’s writing about Mary Wollstonecraft not only the story of genius but how genius relates to non-conformity?
2. More in tune with the topic of the class, is Memoirs the story of the importance of “oversharing” as it relates to contemporary norms or standards (in Mary’s case the role of Women in society), and as justified when the individual sees beyond the conforms of society towards what ‘should’ be the case rather than what is?
3. What does the sense of Mary’s urgency throughout her early years, and it’s gradual decline towards the end of her life when she seems more at peace and less rushed tell us about life itself? Do we become more content after going through our experiences, both good and bad, and acceptance of our place in life, or rather do we find solace in more adequately realizing the objects of our heart’s desire as we age?
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2) This may be an idiosyncratic and indirect answer to your second question, but I do think that economic issues might have to be addressed as well in order to answer your question. For instance, late 18th century England was primarily an agrarian society. Therefore, the vast majority people in England had to till the land in order to survive; of course, the question over whether or not a society is urban or agrarian depends on the state of its technology. It may be ironic that the story takes place in late 18th century England due to the fact that many historians claim that the Industrial Revolution began in England during the mid-eighteenth century.
To more directly answer your question, perhaps a ‘norm’ of England during the time that William Godwin wrote this treatise was that only male landowners were allowed to vote and hold office in government. Ergo, lower-class men as well as women were discriminated against. I believe that your question can raise the issue over whether or not a higher share of rights are granted to lower-strata members of the commonwealth when elites believe that they can ‘afford’ the granting of certain privileges to bourgeois and working-class members of society. Due to fact that both rustics and urbanites can demonstrate signs of civic duty, this is probably an issue I find to be very complicated. However, urbanites usually do have more time of their hands because they do not have to till the soil for survival; also, government usually becomes bigger as cities grow when uprooted peasants move to urban areas. Therefore, privileges and positions in government usually tend to be granted when there is a growth in cities. However, peasants only uproot and move to the cities when their crop prices drop due to improved agricultural technologies. Therefore, it could be the possibility that a failure to grant women and lower-class members of society rights was more a function of economic exigencies than an adoption of overtly elitist attitudes.