Story summary
Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman summary
- 8 min read
- 8 parts
- Audio soon
Maria wakes in a madhouse, parted from her baby, and finds her only ally in her jailer Jemima.
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Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 3 h2 h 25 min fast, 3 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 43,100 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1798by Mary Wollstonecraft
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman in short
Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman tells of a wife locked away as mad so that her husband can reach her fortune. Inside the madhouse she finds a jailer, Jemima, and a fellow prisoner, Darnford. Through their stories and her own memoir, the book walks from a country childhood into a marriage that treats a woman as property, and out again into flight and a courtroom.
What Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman is about
What would you do if your husband had you locked in a madhouse to seize your money, and took your baby of four months from your arms?
Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman is a novel by Mary Wollstonecraft, left unfinished when she died in 1797. She wrote it after her famous argument for the rights of women, and she meant it to show in a story what that argument said in theory. It follows a gentlewoman, a servant and a washerwoman, and shows how law and custom press on each of them in a different way.
Who it’s for. Readers who enjoy fierce heroines, gothic settings and bold ideas will love this novel of feeling, friendship and courage. It also appeals to those drawn to the early struggle for women's rights.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A wife is locked away as mad
Maria sits in a corner of what she calls the house of despair. Her mind is overwhelmed by rage, grief and fear for her missing child. One thought rises above all others: her baby has been torn from her while she was nursing it.
Wollstonecraft opens with a quiet joke at the gothic novel. Other writers fill their castles with ghosts and monsters, she says, but those are made of dreams. The groans in this building are real. The horror here is made by people, not by spirits.
After two days Maria begins to think calmly. How can she get out, and how can she reach her daughter?
The woman who brings her dinner is Jemima, a guard who has been told that the lady's calm spells only make her more dangerous. Maria answers by eating, speaking gently and asking Jemima to watch her closely until she has to admit that her prisoner is sane.
A husband's accusation can wipe out a wife's word, and every protest she makes is read as a symptom.
When the law believes the husband, a woman's own voice counts for nothing.
- 2Start free to read
A jailer and a stranger reach out
Jemima does not soften all at once.
- 3Start free to read
Darnford's story and a love begins
When Darnford finally speaks, he tells Maria his life.
- 4Start free to read
Jemima's life shows how poverty crushes women
On the evening of Maria's joy, Jemima offers her own story, and it is the darkest in the book.
- 5Start free to read
Maria's own life, from romance to marriage
Maria writes for her daughter, and her story begins in the country.
- 6Start free to read
A woman leaves, and the law pursues her
The break comes in the dining room.
- 7Start free to read
The courtroom and the case against marriage law
Back in the present, Maria is told by Jemima that her baby is dead, and Darnford returns her memoir with a tender letter that calls marriage the most unbearable bondage.
- 8Start free to read
How the novel is told and what it asks
The book is told in layers.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Check yourself
Why does Maria begin writing her life for her daughter?
Right. “Soon Maria decides to write her own life for her daughter, in the hope that the girl may learn from her mother's mistakes.”Not quite. “Soon Maria decides to write her own life for her daughter, in the hope that the girl may learn from her mother's mistakes.”
What does Jemima's story add to the novel's argument?
Right. “Wollstonecraft insists that the wrongs of women are not only the wrongs of the wealthy.”Not quite. “Wollstonecraft insists that the wrongs of women are not only the wrongs of the wealthy.”
What makes Maria's mistaken trust in Venables especially dangerous?
Right. “She also shows the law's trap: once married, a wife's property is her husband's.”Not quite. “She also shows the law's trap: once married, a wife's property is her husband's.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Maria Venables A sensitive, clever wife, locked in a madhouse by her husband, who wants her freedom and her missing daughter.
- Jemima Maria's jailer, a hardened woman who survived abuse and poverty and who slowly comes to trust the prisoner she guards.
- Henry Darnford A passionate fellow prisoner, confined by a plot over his inheritance, who reads, writes to Maria and falls in love with her.
- George Venables Maria's husband, a merchant and gambler who wants her uncle's fortune and treats his wife as his property.
- Maria's uncle A kind, wounded man who taught Maria independence and who leaves his fortune to her and her daughter.
- Peggy A sailor's wife whom young Maria helps, a poor woman fighting to keep her children and her cottage.
How it ends (spoiler)
Maria, in the editor's concluding notes, faces an uncertain fortune and distress over her lover's delayed return and disrupted correspondence. The editor lists several possible endings. In the last scene, she swallows laudanum in despair, but Jemima returns with a little girl, the daughter Maria thought dead. The child says Mamma, and Maria decides to live for her.
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Questions about Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman
What is Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman about?
It follows Maria, a wife locked in a private madhouse by her husband, who wants her fortune. She meets her guard Jemima and a fellow prisoner, Darnford, and her memoir shows how marriage law and poverty trap women.
Who is Jemima in the novel?
Jemima is the attendant who guards Maria. Born to a servant mother who died, she is abused as a child, forced into the streets and later hardened by her work. She slowly comes to respect Maria.
What is the main message of the book?
Wollstonecraft argues that the wrongs women suffer come from unequal laws and customs, especially marriage law that makes a wife her husband's property. She shows how those wrongs differ by class but stem from the same system.
Is Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman connected to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?
Yes, it is the author's fictional companion to that essay. It shows in scenes of marriage, work and the courtroom what the earlier book argued in theory, and it carries the same call for women's education and independence.
Cite this edition
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/maria-or-the-wrongs-of-woman.
Wollstonecraft, M. (2026). Maria; or, the wrongs of woman. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maria-or-the-wrongs-of-woman (Original work published 1798)
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maria-or-the-wrongs-of-woman.
@book{wollstonecraft2026maria,
author = {Wollstonecraft, Mary},
title = {Maria; Or, The Wrongs of Woman},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maria-or-the-wrongs-of-woman},
note = {First published 1798}
}
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