Margaret Fuller: Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Questions for Further Study

• 1. How did Fuller's personal story influence her critique of gender relations in Woman in the Nineteenth Century?
• 2. How did Fuller's spiritual ideals connect with her specific suggestions for social reform?
• 3. What was it about Woman in the Nineteenth Century that aroused such controversy? Were Fuller's ideas an extension of the basic principles of American freedom and liberty or a departure from them?
• 4. Did Fuller go too far in drawing a connection between the oppression of women and the institution of slavery in the American South?
• 5. Has America in the twenty-first century caught up with Fuller's ideas about marriage and opportunities for women? Are her views still too radical for mainstream society?