The Influence of The History of Rasselas on A Vindication of the Rights

The Influence of The bill of Rasselas on A Vindication of the Rights of Woman A surprising commons institute between Johnsons The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia and Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is their divided views on womens issues. This commonality is surprising since the two authors had different policy-making viewpoints. sequence Johnson was a conservative Tory, Wollstonecraft was a social nonconformist and feminist. Although Wollstonecraft and Johnson adhered to different political agendas, Wollstonecraft revered many of Johnsons literary works. One example of Wollstonecrafts admiration of Johnson is found in her uncompleted short story Cave of Fancy. Wollstonecraft began pen Cave of Fancy in 1786 and based it on Johnsons Rasselas. Like Rasselas, the mise en scene of Cave of Fancy is an unnamed fairy-tale realm where characters remain untouched by every solar day concerns (Conger 61). The similarities between the two works are seem ing in their opening lines. Johnson addresses the reader of Rasselas with the following statement Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and persue with frenzy the phantoms of hope who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow attend to the history of Rasselas prince of Abissinia. (1) The influence of Johnson is apparent in Wollstonecrafts opening lines Ye who expect constancy where every thing is changing, and serenity in the midst of tumult, attend to the voice of experience, and mark in metre the footsteps of disappointment or life will be lost in desultory wishes, and death arrive before the dawn of wisdom. (Basker 43) ... .... Although Johnson and Wollstonecraft focus on womens issues for different reasons in Rasselas and Vindication, the necessity for an increase in womens education in the 18th century is apparent in both works. Both authors find out that a woman needs to be educated in put up for society to patterned advance. For Wollstonecraft, womens education is needed for the success of the family. For Johnson, womens education is needed for societys progress as a whole. Works Cited Basker, James. Women Writers, Marginal Texts, and the Eighteenth-Century Canon. New York Clarendon, 1996. Conger, Syndy. Mary Wollstonecraft and the delivery of Sensibility. New York Associated UP, 1994. Johnson, Samuel. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. New York Oxford UP, 1998. Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York Norton, 1988.