著者

堀 恵子

出版者

大阪教育大学

雑誌

大阪教育大学紀要. I, 人文科学 (ISSN:03893448)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.46, no.1, pp.15-23, 1997-08

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Mary Wollstonecraftが長女,Fannyを出産したのは,1794年,彼女が35才の時であった。しかし,彼女には1790年後半に9才の女の子を養女として引き取った経験もある。Wollstonecraftは一体どのような母親であったのだろうか。本稿では1787年に出版されたThoughts on the Education of Daughtersと1792年のVindication of the Rights of Womanに描かれた理想の母親像と,子育ての経験を述べた彼女の手紙との比較研究,および人生の転機となる大事件の考察によって,彼女の理論と実生活に迫りたい。The main purpose of this paper is to grasp the truth of Mary Wollstonecraft as a mother. Careful examinations of her life-changing occurrences, earlier theories in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and letters which were written during her child-rearing years, lead to the following conclusions. She was not prepared to become a mother, either economically or mentally, when she adopted Ann. She left Ann to Everina's care and moved to Paris, when she was convinced that Ann would not become the kind of child she could love with all her heart. This behavior is similar to that of her father's who fled to a new village every time his farming failed. After she had her own daughter, Fanny, it seemed that she developed maternal love and that she tried to bring up Fanny in accordance with her child-rearing theories. But the fact that she attempted suicide twice indicated that she was still trying to escape from reality when she found herself in a dilemma and that her love toward Fanny was sill in a selfish stage. It was not until she recovered from her second suicide attempt that she finally realized she had the duty of a mother to Fanny and became a truly responsible mother, who would give her selfless love to her daughter and protect her under any circumstances. Fanny's unhappy life would have been completely different if Wollstonecraft had not died in her second childbirth just when she had developed into a true mother.