Worthless but Necessary

Mary Wollstonecraft brings forth ideas from many different scholars.  For example she states that, “Rousseau declares that a woman should never, for a moment, feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself.” (pg. 7).  This quote reminds me of Edna in the novel The Awakening.  In fact, Edna chooses to do the opposite of what Rousseau believes.  Edna in the end of the novel refuses to go on a trip with her husband, picks her own love that she is truly passionate about, and moves into her own home that she pays for with her own money.  

Also Wollstonecraft says, “Connected with man as daughters, wives, and mothers, their moral character may be estimated by their manner of fulfilling those simple duties; but the end, the grand end of their exertions should be to unfold their own faculties and acquire the dignity of conscious virtue.” (pg. 8). This quote reminds of a concept that Thorstein Veblen discusses.  When Wollstonecraft talks about the duties of women I think that Veblen elaborates on what these duties are stereotypically supposed to be.  Veblen says, “In the earlier phases of the predatory culture the only economic differentiation is a broad distinction between an honourable superior class made up of the able- bodied men on the one side, and a base inferior class of labouring women on the other.”(pg. 32).  Men are superior while the women work because of their inferiority.  

Veblen also elaborates on the work that women achieve.  Veblen states, “Unproductive consumption of goods is honorable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite of human dignity; secondarily it becomes substantially honourable in itself, especially the consumption of the more desirable things.”(pg. 31) This quote explains how it is honourable to appear to be wealthy and superior and the way to achieve this is in the tasks that women complete.  Women elaborately decorate the interiors of their homes, they change the landscape of their homes to edged lawns, and they fill their kitchens with fancy appliances.  All of these are worthless and provide no practical purpose, however, they demonstrate wealth and help to build their husband’s image.  

This is similar to Edna and Leonce’s martial relationship in The Awakening.  When Edna decides to move out to the pigeon house Leonce doesn’t want society to think that he isn’t wealthy enough to provide for her so he says that he is redoing his house because according to society having a nice and decadent household with impractical belongings portrays you as wealthy.