Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark · Chapter
Letter XIV explained
Wollstonecraft reflects on the character of Norwegian farmers, the odels right law, and the architecture of Christiania, contrasting the simplicity and virtue of inland life with the cunning of the coast.
What happens
Wollstonecraft reflects on the character of Norwegian farmers, the odels right law, and the architecture of Christiania, contrasting the simplicity and virtue of inland life with the cunning of the coast. She muses on commerce, liberty, and the need for taste in moral development, while preparing for departure.
Themes in this chapter
Commerce and Morality
Wollstonecraft critiques the tyranny of wealth and the moral impact of commerce, contrasting the simplicity of Norwegian farmers with the cunning of coastal traders.
Nature and the Sublime
Descriptions of Norwegian forests, lakes, and cottages evoke the sublime beauty of nature, which she links to devotion and moral feeling.
Reason vs. Sentiment
Wollstonecraft balances her imaginative longing for an idyllic retreat with rational skepticism, noting 'reason drags me back' to the realities of human nature.
Characters to notice
- Mary Wollstonecraft
Narrator and observer, reflecting on Norwegian society, law, and architecture.
- Gilbert Imlay
Implied addressee of the letter; Wollstonecraft mentions 'calls of business and affection' related to him.
- Count Bernstorff
Mentioned as the owner of a forest near Tonsberg where Wollstonecraft admired cottages.
Key passages
“I want faith! My imagination hurries me forward to seek an asylum in such a retreat from all the disappointments I am threatened with; but reason drags me back, whispering that the world is still the world, and man the same compound of weakness and folly.”
Wollstonecraft yearns to believe in an idyllic, virtuous community, but her reason reminds her that human nature remains flawed and unchanging.
Illustrates the tension between romantic idealism and rational skepticism.
“England and America owe their liberty to commerce, which created new species of power to undermine the feudal system. But let them beware of the consequence; the tyranny of wealth is still more galling and debasing than that of rank.”
Commerce helped break feudal bonds in England and America, but Wollstonecraft warns that economic inequality can become a new, more oppressive form of tyranny.
Critique of commercial society and its potential for moral corruption.
“If we wish to render mankind moral from principle, we must, I am persuaded, give a greater scope to the enjoyments of the senses by blending taste with them.”
To cultivate genuine morality, people need to experience sensory pleasures refined by taste, not mere asceticism.
Wollstonecraft argues for the importance of aesthetic experience in moral development.