ABSTRACT
That Mary Wollstonecraft influenced Jane Austen is especially clear in their common revisions of existing feminine ideals. They both critique the existing cult of sensibility and its contribution to mistaken ideals of women’s education. Instead, they put forth new female heroines who reason rightly precisely because they feel deeply about the right objects. Austen and Wollstonecraft can be seen to diverge somewhat in their confrontations with social hierarchy. A deep critique of hierarchical thought is at the core of Wollstonecraft’s political philosophy. By comparison, Austen ironizes social pretense produced by class hierarchies and firmly challenges an ethical system built merely on social customs and tradition. However, there are important differences in the rate at which Wollstonecraft and Austen approach existing social boundaries and the depth to which they appear willing to transgress them. Yet, it would be wrong to cast Austen as the conservative and Wollstonecraft the radical without attending to the complexities of their overlapping social critiques. Though they do depart in degrees, they are fundamentally alike in their approach to the future of British society. In order for their society to become more virtuous, at bottom both Wollstonecraft and Austen believed that it needed to encourage and enable women to become more prudent.
