Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark · Chapter
Letter XXIV explained
Wollstonecraft describes her uncomfortable lodgings in Altona, the high cost of living, and the pervasive influence of commerce along the Elbe.
What happens
Wollstonecraft describes her uncomfortable lodgings in Altona, the high cost of living, and the pervasive influence of commerce along the Elbe. She contrasts the flat, trade-driven landscape with the sublime mountains and lakes of her recent travels, expressing disgust at the dishonesty of merchants and the moral corruption of commerce. She reflects on the contrast between nature's tranquility and the din of trade, and laments the greed that undermines human life.
Themes in this chapter
Commerce and Morality
Wollstonecraft condemns the greed and dishonesty of merchants, comparing their profit-driven schemes to gambling and slavery, and lamenting that 'to commerce everything must give way.'
Nature and the Sublime
She contrasts the sublime, mountainous landscapes of her recent travels with the flat, commercialized Elbe, yearning for the peace and elevation of nature.
Social Critique and Class
She criticizes the narrow-mindedness of the merchant class, whose conversation is 'ever flowing in the muddy channel of business,' and the moral decay of those who profit from war and exploitation.
Characters to notice
- Mary Wollstonecraft
Narrator and observer, reflecting on the contrast between nature and commerce, and expressing moral outrage at commercial greed.
- Marguerite
Mentioned as needing to navigate rough streets with the child to reach a level road.
Key passages
“But to commerce everything must give way; profit and profit are the only speculations—'double—double, toil and trouble.'”
Commerce dominates all aspects of life, with profit as the sole objective, echoing the relentless toil of Macbeth's witches.
Wollstonecraft uses a literary allusion to criticize the single-minded pursuit of wealth.
“In fancy I return to a favourite spot, where I seemed to have retired from man and wretchedness; but the din of trade drags me back to all the care I left behind, when lost in sublime emotions.”
She imagines returning to a peaceful natural retreat, but the noise of commerce pulls her back to worldly anxieties.
Highlights the tension between nature's sublimity and the intrusive reality of trade.
“The sword has been merciful, compared with the depredations made on human life by contractors and by the swarm of locusts who have battened on the pestilence they spread abroad.”
War is less destructive than the profiteering of contractors who thrive on the suffering they cause.
A sharp moral indictment of war profiteers and economic exploitation.