Introduction
The book “The wrongs of Woman” was written in the eighteenth century. This is a period that marriages were solely controlled by men and the women were treated as slaves. This paper will discuss why the writer decided to use the third person narration in the beginning of the book. It will also be discussed in this paper why the writer decided to tell the story in some parts of the book in the first person narration. Using these two types of narration has different effects on a book and this paper will discuss these effects in this book.
Discussion
This book is mostly narrated in the third person but there are some large sections of the book that tell the stories of Maria and Jemima in the first person narration. By using the first person narration, the reader is able to connect to the feelings that Maria experiences. The writer, “Wollstonecraft uses a technique of free indirect discourse which blurs the line between the third person narrator and the first person narrator” (Langbauer, 2008). She uses juxtaposition to show the experiences throughout the novel with Maria retelling them and also through her own feelings. Through the first person narration, we see Maria and Jemina addressing one another as equals. They share a great bond between them since they have both undergone suffering but at the same time, these characters are allowed through this to have a retention of their own and individual self-sense.
The writer writes her own story using her daughter’s narrative. Through this, we are able to see how her parents had much love for their son, Robert, above that of the other children. Through this narration, we are shown how Robert ruled his siblings in a dictatorial manner.
When the writer uses the third person narration in the beginning of the book, the reader is first able to get an unbiased perception of the events. The reader is able to engage the material without being affected by emotions of pity toward the author or narrator. By interchanging the first and the third person narration, the writer, Wollstonecraft attempts to make the reader understand the story of Maria in different perspectives. She wants, through the third person narration to engage the reader to make a stand on the institution of marriage. She wants to show how marriage in the eighteenth century was a patriarchal one and the women suffered under the cruel hands of their husbands. When using the first person narration, the writer is keen on informing the reader of the suffering that Maria is undergoing in her marriage. We see how her husband changes after he marries her and he treats her in a cruel manner. She is in bondage and her experiences are full of suffering.
Maria tells her own story so that the magnitude of her suffering can be seen. On the other hand, through third person narration, we are able to see the weaknesses of Maria. She is a woman who full of romantic fantasies and a sense of sentimentalism that tends to damage her life.
Conclusion
This paper has discussed why Wollstonecraft has decided to use the first and third person narration in the book. The effects of the first person narration in the book have been discussed and also how it impacts differently from that of the third person narration.
Reference
Langbauer, L. (2008). “An Early Romance: Motherhood and Women’s Writing in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Novels”. Romanticism and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.