“Stripping his dead wife naked”: William Godwin’s philosophy in Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798)

Abstract

[eng] After the death of Mary Wollstonecraft, her recently widowed husband and radical philosopher William Godwin published Memoirs of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798), a biography of unprecedented frankness which narrates Wollstonecraft’s life from early childhood to the very moment of her death. The aim of this thesis is to argue that the Memoirs can be considered a Jacobin biography since Godwin seems to be disseminating his philosophy from Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) through his wife’s life narrative. The approach followed in this thesis is historic and aims to analyze how Godwin engages in the political sphere of the “Revolution Controversy” or “Pamphlet War” advocating for reform and political change. As it will be discussed in this essay, elements from Godwin’s Dissenting philosophy are echoed in the Memoirs, namely his belief in humans and institutions as capable of perpetual improvement and his faith in the power of sincerity or “Candour”. Nevertheless, Godwin’s adherence to the doctrine of sincerity and his failure to anticipate the negative reaction triggered by his narration of some of the most controversial events of his wife’s life, such as her suicide attempts and previous liaisons, rendered Wollstonecraft and Godwin the center of attacks from the conservative sectors of society. As a result, the Memoirs and Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman sank into obscurity during the nineteenth century until they were rediscovered in the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, Godwin’s intentions to achieve social change by means of Candour proved to be counterproductive.