<P> Wollstonecraft dedicates significant portions of Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to descriptions of nature and her emotional responses to it . One of her most effective tactics is to associate a set of thoughts and feelings with a specific natural formation, such as the waterfall passage quoted above . Nature, Wollstonecraft assumes, is "a common reference point" between readers and herself, therefore her letters should generate a sense of social sympathy with them . Many of the letters contain these "miniature Romantic excursus" which illustrate Wollstonecraft's ideas regarding the connections between nature, God, and the self . The natural world becomes "the necessary ground of speculation and the crucial field of experience". </P> <P> All of Wollstonecraft's writings, including the Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, address the concerns of women in eighteenth - century society . As in previous works, she discusses concrete issues such as childcare and relationships with servants, but unlike her more polemical books such as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) or the Rights of Woman, this text emphasizes her emotional reactions to nature and maternity . Yet she does not depart from her interest in promoting women's education and rights . In Letter 19, the most explicitly feminist letter, Wollstonecraft anticipates readers' criticisms: "still harping on the same subject, you will exclaim--How can I avoid it, when most of the struggles of an eventful life have been occasioned by the oppressed state of my sex: we reason deeply, when we forcibly feel ." Wollstonecraft comes to the realization that she has always been forced to experience the world as a woman--it is the defining feature of her sense of self . </P> <P> Throughout Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Wollstonecraft comments on the precarious position women occupy in society . She defends and sympathizes with Queen Caroline of Denmark, for example, who had been accused of "licentiousness" for her extra-marital affair during her marriage to the insane Christian VII . (Wollstonecraft herself had had unorthodox love affairs and an illegitimate child .) Wollstonecraft describes this royal, who was also a progressive social reformer, as a woman of courage who tried to revolutionize her country before it was prepared . Such examples fuel Wollstonecraft's increasing despair and melancholy . At one point, she laments the fate of her daughter: </P> <P> You know that as a female I am particularly attached to her--I feel more than a mother's fondness and anxiety, when I reflect on the dependent and oppressed state of her sex . I dread lest she should be forced to sacrifice her heart to her principles, or principles to her heart . With trembling hand I shall cultivate sensibility, and cherish delicacy of sentiment, lest, whilst I lend fresh blushes to the rose, I sharpen the thorns that will wound the breast I would fain guard--I dread to unfold her mind, lest it should render her unfit for the world she is to inhabit--Hapless woman! what a fate is thine! </P>

Letters written during a short residence in sweden norway and denmark summary