The Compelling The Compelling Letters of Mary Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Wollstonecraft to Gilbert ImlayGilbert Imlay

By Katie Merriam

What makes these letters so What makes these letters so compelling to readers?compelling to readers?

• Generations of readers from William Godwin to Lyndall Gordon have felt the evocative power of the letters

• It is the distinctive rhetoric of the love letters that makes them so

compelling

Versions of the LettersVersions of the Letters

• The edited version of the actual letters that Wollstonecraft sent to Imlay

• Wollstonecraft’s Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark which were written solely for publication, not to be sent to Imlay

Rhetorical Strategy: Rhetorical Strategy: Intimate DetailsIntimate Details• Gives the reader the sense of being in close proximity

to Wollstonecraft and Imlay’s relationship• Affectionate Diction

– “My dear Love”, “my dearest”, “your own dear girl”– “God bless you”= kiss– Uses some of the same expressions in her letters to

Godwin but far less frequently and for a different purpose

• Sexual Insinuations – “I hope to tell you soon (on your lips) how glad I shall

be to see you”– Reminds Imlay of their sexual relationship and bond

as lovers– Used in a flirtatious way to entice reader

Intimate Details ContinuedIntimate Details Continued

• Domestic Imagery– Wollstonecraft uses to convince Imlay to return

home; brings readers beyond the content of the letters

– “Routine domesticity”• Imlay’s slippers• Fireside• Walks and reading

– Fanny• Used to waken Imlay’s parental attachment to his

daughter • Daily events in Fanny’s life that Imlay must miss• Wollstonecraft also references Fanny in her letters to

Godwin, but these references are less compelling because Fanny is not his biological child

Rhetorical Strategy: Tension Rhetorical Strategy: Tension between Vulnerability and between Vulnerability and IndependenceIndependence

• Vulnerability used to appeal to Imlay’s pity and instinct to care for his lover– References to illness, falling on rocks, emotional

weakness– Parasite plant imagery– Rousseau’s ‘Solitary Walker’

• Independence to entice Imlay by showing him that she does not need him– Other men, threats to leave him – Images of flight and ascension– Refuses Imlay’s pecuniary offerings, resolves to

find works – “I part with you in peace”

Rhetorical Strategy: Tension Rhetorical Strategy: Tension between Vulnerability and between Vulnerability and Independence ContinuedIndependence Continued

• Tension between vulnerability and independence draws reader into Wollstonecraft’s internal struggle to both express and regulate her affections for her lover

• It also makes the reader sympathize with Wollstonecraft because she has changing human emotions that the reader understands

Rhetorical Strategy: Rhetorical Strategy: Changing MoodsChanging Moods

• Ebb and flow of intensity and mood from light and happy to agitated to morose

• Frequently breaks off in passion and frustration

• Wollstonecraft’s use of punctuation is an indication of her state of mind

People Influenced by the People Influenced by the LettersLetters

• William Godwin– Letters “calculated to make a man fall in love with the

author”• Mary Shelley

– History of a Six Weeks’ Tour:1817– Similar characteristics of letters

• Percy Shelley – Became enamored with Wollstonecraft after reading the

letters– Eloped with Mary Shelley- Godwin and Wollstonecraft’s

“child of love and light”• Claire Claremont

– Free Love– Illegitimate child and remaking of herself in Russia

Importance of the Letters Importance of the Letters for Modern Readersfor Modern Readers

• Are the letters compelling to modern readers, and if so, what makes them compelling?

• Do the letters teach the reader anything about how rhetoric should be used to express emotion?

• Do the letters teach the modern reader anything about the nature of love or about Wollstonecraft’s definition of love?