Maria

M >> Mary Wollstonecraft >> Maria


I. "Trial for adultery--Maria defends herself--A separation from bed and
board is the consequence--Her fortune is thrown into chancery--Darnford
obtains a part of his property--Maria goes into the country."

II. "A prosecution for adultery commenced--Trial--Darnford sets out
for France--Letters--Once more pregnant--He returns--Mysterious
behaviour--Visit--Expectation--Discovery--Interview--Consequence."

III. "Sued by her husband--Damages awarded to him--Separation from bed
and board--Darnford goes abroad--Maria into the country--Provides for
her father--Is shunned--Returns to London--Expects to see her lover--The
rack of expectation--Finds herself again with child--Delighted--A
discovery--A visit--A miscarriage--Conclusion."

IV. "Divorced by her husband--Her lover
unfaithful--Pregnancy--Miscarriage--Suicide."



[The following passage appears in some respects to deviate from the
preceding hints. It is superscribed] "THE END.

"She swallowed the laudanum; her soul was calm--the tempest had
subsided--and nothing remained but an eager longing to forget
herself--to fly from the anguish she endured to escape from
thought--from this hell of disappointment.

"Still her eyes closed not--one remembrance with frightful velocity
followed another--All the incidents of her life were in arms, embodied
to assail her, and prevent her sinking into the sleep of death.--Her
murdered child again appeared to her, mourning for the babe of which she
was the tomb.--'And could it have a nobler?--Surely it is better to
die with me, than to enter on life without a mother's care!--I
cannot live!--but could I have deserted my child the moment it was
born?--thrown it on the troubled wave of life, without a hand to support
it?'--She looked up: 'What have I not suffered!--may I find a father
where I am going!--Her head turned; a stupor ensued; a faintness--'Have
a little patience,' said Maria, holding her swimming head (she thought
of her mother), 'this cannot last long; and what is a little bodily pain
to the pangs I have endured?'

"A new vision swam before her. Jemima seemed to enter--leading a little
creature, that, with tottering footsteps, approached the bed. The voice
of Jemima sounding as at a distance, called her--she tried to listen, to
speak, to look!

"'Behold your child!' exclaimed Jemima. Maria started off the bed, and
fainted.--Violent vomiting followed.

"When she was restored to life, Jemima addressed her with great
solemnity: '----- led me to suspect, that your husband and brother
had deceived you, and secreted the child. I would not torment you with
doubtful hopes, and I left you (at a fatal moment) to search for the
child!--I snatched her from misery--and (now she is alive again) would
you leave her alone in the world, to endure what I have endured?'

"Maria gazed wildly at her, her whole frame was convulsed with emotion;
when the child, whom Jemima had been tutoring all the journey, uttered
the word 'Mamma!' She caught her to her bosom, and burst into a passion
of tears--then, resting the child gently on the bed, as if afraid of
killing it,--she put her hand to her eyes, to conceal as it were the
agonizing struggle of her soul. She remained silent for five minutes,
crossing her arms over her bosom, and reclining her head,--then
exclaimed: 'The conflict is over!--I will live for my child!'"


A few readers perhaps, in looking over these hints, will wonder how it
could have been practicable, without tediousness, or remitting in any
degree the interest of the story, to have filled, from these slight
sketches, a number of pages, more considerable than those which have
been already presented. But, in reality, these hints, simple as they
are, are pregnant with passion and distress. It is the refuge of barren
authors only, to crowd their fictions with so great a number of events,
as to suffer no one of them to sink into the reader's mind. It is
the province of true genius to develop events, to discover their
capabilities, to ascertain the different passions and sentiments with
which they are fraught, and to diversify them with incidents, that give
reality to the picture, and take a hold upon the mind of a reader of
taste, from which they can never be loosened. It was particularly
the design of the author, in the present instance, to make her story
subordinate to a great moral purpose, that "of exhibiting the misery and
oppression, peculiar to women, that arise out of the partial laws and
customs of society.--This view restrained her fancy."* It was necessary
for her, to place in a striking point of view, evils that are too
frequently overlooked, and to drag into light those details of
oppression, of which the grosser and more insensible part of mankind
make little account.

* See author's preface. [Godwin's note]

THE END.