Mary Wollstonecraft
Wollstonecraft wrote this as herself, and we can get a sense of her character through reading. She has a strong, reasoned voice, and often has a humorous tone when writing about Edmund Burke. For example, in the opening of the text she aims this ironic criticism at Burke: “Not having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy has started fresh game, I have confined my strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he has leveled many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb”. We also get a strong sense of Wollstonecraft's feminist inclinations in this text, especially with her criticism of Burke's description of Marie Antoinette.
Edmund Burke
Wollstonecraft mocks and criticizes Edmund Burke in this text, and depicts him as being a dramatic conservative. It is not surprising that Wollstonecraft is so critical of Burke, as he had completely different political views. While he was a conservative traditionalist, she was radical and liberal.
Marie Antoinette
In her criticism of Burke, Wollstonecraft mentions his elaborate description of Marie Antoinette in his political pamphlet, Reflections on the Revolution in France. Wollstonecraft argues that although Burke intended to flatter the Queen of France, he depicted her as being weak, frail and passive. As such, a debate about the depiction of Marie Antoinette's character is discussed in this text.
