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Style
Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
Introduction
Explanation and Analysis:
The tone of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is rational. Wollstonecraft’s emphasis on reason is reflective of Enlightenment philosophy, and her desire to come across as a rational being majorly impacts her writing. She makes an early association between justice and reason, making it clear that she writes with the intention of being clear and "reasonable" in order to serve her argument. Her emphasis on these attributes is a clear reaction to a culture that, especially where women are concerned, praises sense and feeling over thought. She writes:
In what does man’s pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole; in Reason.
In this excerpt, Wollstonecraft asserts the importance of Reason. Her tone throughout her argument reflects this position. She aims, above all, to be reasonable and to structure her argument around the tenets of reason. Her dedication to these tenets is reflected in the way that she writes about them; by keeping her arguments simple, she shows that she prizes the ability to be accessible to her readers and readily understood. She consistently uses the tactics of reason to argue for her cause. She criticizes the lack of emphasis on independent reasoning in the current education of women, and demonstrates the need for it as she showcases her prowess as a persuasive writer.
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