When Elizabeth Bennet rejects Mr. Collins's proposal in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", she urges him to believe what she says: "Do not consider me now as an elegant female [...], but as a rational creature [...]." That same phrase also appears in "Persuasion" when Mrs. Croft chides her brother, Captain Wentworth: "[...] I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures." This marks Austen's women – and Austen herself – as readers of Mary Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women", who calls for society to educate women and allow them to be "rational creatures, and free citizens". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 15 July)
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