# Letter XVII explained — Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

> Chapter companion for Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft.

## What happens

Wollstonecraft visits Trollhättan to see the famous waterfall and the canal works, reflecting on the sublime power of nature versus human industry. She contrasts the poverty of Sweden with the relative independence of Norwegian peasants, critiques Swedish laws and gender relations, and describes her journey from Gothenburg to Elsineur en route to Copenhagen.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and the Sublime

Wollstonecraft describes the Trollhättan cascade as a grand, chaotic scene that inspires awe and regret over human interference.

### Social Critique and Class

She contrasts the independent Norwegian peasantry with the abject, polite Swedish poor, and criticizes relaxed laws that favor knavery.

### Gender and Women's Condition

Observations on Swedish women's limited recourse to divorce and their descent into domestic drudgery or retaliation.

## Character check-ins

### Mary Wollstonecraft

Narrator and observer; visits Trollhättan, reflects on nature and society, and travels toward Copenhagen.

## Key lines

> I could not help regretting that such a noble scene had not been left in all its solitary sublimity.

Wollstonecraft wishes the wild waterfall had been preserved untouched by human industry.

_Reflects her preference for natural sublimity over commercial progress._

> The women do not often recur to this equal privilege, for they either retaliate on their husbands by following their own devices or sink into the merest domestic drudges, worn down by tyranny to servile submission.

Swedish women rarely use their legal right to divorce, instead either cheating on their husbands or becoming submissive household slaves.

_Critique of gender inequality and the limited real freedom for women._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/letters_written_during_a_short_residence_in_swed_se/chapters/letter-xvii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/letters_written_during_a_short_residence_in_swed_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/letters_written_during_a_short_residence_in_swed_se/chapters