酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman-Part6_Mary Wollstonecraft(1759-1797)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
never knew. Allow me first to make one observation. Now I look



back, I cannot help attributing the greater part of my misery, to

the misfortune of having been thrown into the world without the



grand support of life--a mother's affection. I had no one to love

me; or to make me respected, to enable me to acquire respect.



I was an egg dropped on the sand; a pauper by nature, hunted from

family to family, who belonged to nobody--and nobody cared for me.



I was despised from my birth, and denied the chance of obtaining

a footing for myself in society. Yes; I had not even the chance



of being considered as a fellow-creature--yet all the people with

whom I lived, brutalized as they were by the low cunning of trade,



and the despicable shifts of poverty, were not without bowels,

though they never yearned for me. I was, in fact, born a slave,



and chained by infamy to slavery during the whole of existence,

without having any companions to alleviate it by sympathy, or teach



me how to rise above it by their example. But, to resume the thread

of my tale--



"At sixteen, I suddenly grew tall, and something like comeliness

appeared on a Sunday, when I had time to wash my face, and put on



clean clothes. My master had once or twice caught hold of me in

the passage; but I instinctively avoided his disgusting caresses.



One day however, when the family were at a methodist meeting, he

contrived to be alone in the house with me, and by blows--yes;



blows and menaces, compelled me to submit to his ferocious desire;

and, to avoid my mistress's fury, I was obliged in future to comply,



and skulk to my loft at his command, in spite of increasing loathing.

"The anguish which was now pent up in my bosom, seemed to open



a new world to me: I began to extend my thoughts beyond myself,

and grieve for human misery, till I discovered, with horror--ah!



what horror!--that I was with child. I know not why I felt a mixed

sensation of despair and tenderness, excepting that, ever called



a bastard, a bastard appeared to me an object of the greatest

compassion in creation.



"I communicated this dreadful circumstance to my master, who

was almost equally alarmed at the intelligence; for he feared his



wife, and public censure at the meeting. After some weeks of

deliberation had elapsed, I in continual fear that my altered shape



would be noticed, my master gave me a medicine in a phial, which

he desired me to take, telling me, without any circumlocution, for



what purpose it was designed. I burst into tears, I thought it

was killing myself--yet was such a self as I worth preserving?



He cursed me for a fool, and left me to my own reflections.

I could not resolve to take this infernal potion; but I



wrapped it up in an old gown, and hid it in a corner of my box.

"Nobody yet suspected me, because they had been accustomed to



view me as a creature of another species. But the threatening

storm at last broke over my devoted head--never shall I forget it!



One Sunday evening when I was left, as usual, to take care of the

house, my master came home intoxicated, and I became the prey of



his brutalappetite. His extreme intoxication made him forget his

customary caution, and my mistress entered and found us in a



situation that could not have been more hateful to her than me.

Her husband was 'pot-valiant,' he feared her not at the moment,



nor had he then much reason, for she instantly turned the whole

force of her anger another way. She tore off my cap, scratched,



kicked, and buffetted me, till she had exhausted her strength,

declaring, as she rested her arm, 'that I had wheedled her husband



from her.--But, could any thing better be expected from a wretch,




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号