| An Essay On ?An End To Blind Obedience? Essay, Research Paper
Literature, in its finest, is on the cutting edge of society, pulling on its borders, broadening its views, and bringing to it new ideas and concepts. In this way, an essay can be as effective as a vaccine or technological discovery. ?An End to Blind Obedience?, written by Mary Wollstonecraft is an example of such an essay and has changed the popular thoughts of its time. This essay was written to the scholarly men of her time, men who, by heart, knew the great teachings of such philosophers mentioned such as Milton and Rousseau. These were the men that Wollstonecraft sought to persuade because she knew they were the puppet masters of society, and they pulled the strings of the governmental leaders and legislators of that time. This work could not have been published by an inexperienced woman right?s radical, but by a woman of honor and dignity, who earned respect from the eminent writers and thinkers of her time, including Thomas Paine and William Blake. She states in her first paragraph that she writes ?to account for, and excuse the tyranny of man?, however I feel she has an ulterior purpose. I believe the essay was also written as a well organized example and as hard evidence in the form of an essay that women were as capable and sometimes more capable than women. With Wollstonecraft?s narrative language, mode, and structure, she fulfills effectively fulfils the purposes of her essay.
The language of this essay is one way by which the author is successful in fulfilling her task. This diction is not simply wordy, but more eloquent and articulate. The use of polysyllabic words and extremely extensive vocabulary are very common in Wollstonecraft?s work. Words such as puerile and epithet are examples of scholarly word choice and rendered powerful when used in the justification of the intelligence of woman, as the author of the essay is a woman. She even modifies words such as ephemeron and Mahometan to say what she means. Also, by creating these words, she may cause the reader to feel her vocabulary is more extensive than his/hers. The syntax in this essay is also used to make the essay more effective. The sentences are long, complex and filled with punctuation. This work becomes extremely complicated to the reader, and he must focus on it the entire time, without losing his place and therefore the continuity of the essay. This complexity was Wollstonecraft?s intention. Nothing is more effective in proving her case than presenting a work that requires the reader to read her essay actively and if they do not, they would not understand it. Imagine if a scholar of that time had trouble following the work of a woman, whom he claimed to have so much more intelligence than.
This language all combines to form Wollstonecraft?s effective mode and tone by which her essay follows. The tone of this essay, because of its intense language and complex sentence structure, is extremely scholarly and intellectual. There is no doubt that her work was even more so well thought out and brought together by the men in which the essay was intended to effect. This scholarly tone was effective by showing the men of her time the ability of a woman to match or even surpass the writing ability of her time?s scholars. Also, as far as the content of the essay goes, notice the Wollstonecraft?s choice of structure. She moves her essay by first stating her goal, then dispelling popular ideas of the time, then she presents her own ideas, and finally closes the essay with the illustration and comparison of a woman to a soldier. This structure also adds to the effectiveness of her essay. She first contradicts popular ideas, inserts here ideas in the gap she made, and the assures them with an illustration. With this structure, her goal is more than adequately fulfilled
With Wollstonecraft?s amazing ability to present in essay with eloquent diction, complex syntax, scholarly tone, and effective structure, she presents a masterpiece which does mare than just express her ideas, but validates them. The essay appears a little too complicated for some reader?s taste, however this was done purposely by Wollstonecraft to validate herself. This essay is a fine example of how an essay can be as powerful as a sword, and as revolutionary as science. Few essays ever have had such opportunity and ability to effect society in the way the ?An End to Blind Obedience? has been able to.
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