Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark · Chapter
Letter XV explained
Wollstonecraft departs Christiania for Fredericstadt, where she is delayed from visiting a cascade.
What happens
Wollstonecraft departs Christiania for Fredericstadt, where she is delayed from visiting a cascade. She reflects on the sublime beauty of Norwegian forests and the devastation of wildfires, then visits a cataract that stirs profound thoughts on life, death, and immortality. She observes sawmills, a bridge, and local estates, and concludes with a skeptical inquiry into sea monsters.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and the Sublime
The cascade and forest scenes evoke sublime emotions, leading to reflections on life, death, and immortality.
Travel and Self-Discovery
Wollstonecraft's journey prompts introspection on her altered state of mind and personal grief.
Characters to notice
- Mary Wollstonecraft
Narrator and traveler, reflecting on grief, nature, and mortality.
Key passages
“How I am altered by disappointment! When going to Lisbon, the elasticity of my mind was sufficient to ward off weariness, and my imagination still could dip her brush in the rainbow of fancy, and sketch futurity in glowing colours. Now—but let me talk of something else—”
Wollstonecraft contrasts her former resilience and hopeful imagination during her trip to Lisbon with her current melancholy, then abruptly shifts the topic.
Reflects on personal change due to disappointment.
“The impetuous dashing of the rebounding torrent from the dark cavities which mocked the exploring eye produced an equal activity in my mind. My thoughts darted from earth to heaven, and I asked myself why I was chained to life and its misery.”
The violent waterfall stirs her thoughts to leap between earthly concerns and spiritual questions, making her question her attachment to a painful life.
Sublime nature triggers existential reflection.
“I cannot tell why, but death, under every form, appears to me like something getting free to expand in I know not what element—nay, I feel that this conscious being must be as unfettered, have the wings of thought, before it can be happy.”
Death seems to her a liberation into an unknown realm, and she believes consciousness must be free like thought to achieve happiness.
Philosophical meditation on death and freedom.