Love and friendship Mary: A Fiction

charlotte @ werther s tomb in goethe s sorrows of young werther (1774)

mary s relationship ann challenges definition of friendship; johnson explains, no ordinary friendship . mary looks ann, in wollstonecraft s words, experience pleasure of being beloved . mary coded masculine (agentive, sublime) while ann stereotypically feminine in [her] die-away delicacy . gendered divide reflected in mary s choice of reading material; reads books associated masculine sublime such edward young s night thoughts (1742–45) , john milton s paradise lost (1667). although ann not feel love mary mary her, mary devotedly nurses ann , distraught death. unusual intensity of relationship revealed in wollstonecraft s description of mary s sorrow:

the ladies . . . began administer common–place comfort, as, our duty submit of heaven, , trite consolations, mary did not answer; waving hand, air of impatience, exclaimed, cannot live without her! — have no other friend; if lose her, desart [sic] world me. no other friend, re–echoed they, have not husband?

mary shrunk back, , alternately pale , red. delicate sense of propriety prevented replying; , recalled bewildered reason.

johnson cautions against labelling mary , ann s relationship lesbian, since identity-defining concepts of heterosexuality , homosexuality did not exist during 18th century; maintains, rather, relationship bond cannot articulated through language. bond perhaps best described erotic rather overtly sexual. further evidence support such interpretation comes wollstonecraft s life. wollstonecraft based portrait of ann on close friend, fanny blood, , when husband, william godwin, came write memoirs of author of vindication of rights of woman (1798), described fanny , wollstonecraft s first meeting similar 1 between tortured lovers charlotte , werther in goethe s sentimental novel sorrows of young werther (1774). 1 biographer of wollstonecraft notes hester chapone s letters on improvement of mind, influenced wollstonecraft s earlier thoughts on education of daughters (1787), dedicates several chapters these friends of heart ; such friendships not have seemed unusual 18th-century readers.

after ann s death, mary replaces henry; johnson writes, tale of forbidden , unnarratable passionate friendship becomes tale of forbidden narratable adulterous love . ann, henry feminine counterpart mary s masculine persona. mary s relationship henry both erotic , paternal:

[s]he thought of him till began chide herself defrauding dead, and, determining grieve ann, dwelt on henry s misfortune , ill health . . . thought rapture there 1 person in world had affection her, , person admired — had friendship for. had called dear girl . . . child! child, association of ideas! if had father, such father! — not dwell on thoughts, wishes obtruded themselves. mind unhinged, , passion unperceived filled whole soul.

in johnson s interpretation, mary not replace ann masculine lover 1 might expect in sentimental novel rather feminine , yet still acceptably male, lover.