Sarah Margaret Fuller example essay topic

Margaret Fuller: Bluestocking, Romantic, Revolutionary by: Ellen Wilson 1810-1850 Published by William E. Wilson Copyright 1977 Ryerson Ltd... , Toronto, 1977 Sarah Margaret Fuller lived an extremely detailed life. She experienced many difficult occurrences that would have made many think life too difficult. But, no matter how many events made her feel like a failure and never improved, Margaret still fought for what she wanted and never gave in to anything she thought was less than what she deserved.

Margaret Fuller lived a difficult life, but through it all she never gave up. Due to her devotion and dedication to strive for what she wanted or needed, Margaret lived alife of success. Margaret Fuller was the first child of Timothy and Margaret Crane Fuller. At birth Margaret's given name was Sarah Margaret Fuller. She was born in Cambridge port, Massachusetts on May 23, 1810. Because he so wanted his first child to be a boy, Timothy raised Sarah as a boy.

As a result of her father's daily lessons, at the age of four Sarah knew her letters and could read. Four the next few years she both loved and hated her lessons. Even if she was sleepy, she never dared say so but, with a tremendous effort, kept her eyes opened and recited the lessons she had been studying that day. Sarah Fuller was never received any complements in regards to her beauty.

The only complements she ever received were about her intelligence. These complements, though were never told to her. She only overheard these complements when they were addressed to her parents. When Sarah was 13 she begged her family to let her drop the Sarah and be called only Margaret. Her father disapproved.

Sarah's feeling were because she felt her given name was a proper old-maidish name. Gradually persuaded, though, her family fell into the habit of calling her Margaret. In the summer of 1823 Miss Ellen Kilshaw came from England. In the weeks that followed, Margaret became Miss Ellen's adoring acolyte Miss Ellen was charmed by Margaret's childish deviation. Their friendship was a tender one, pleasing to both. Inthe autumn, when Miss Kilshaw sailed away back to England, the parting was sad.

At the age of 14, Margaret was allowed to attended a school for two years. For the following few years, Margaret did exceptionally well in school. She was very much into reading the classics, especially Shakespeare. She excelled rather quickly and was obviously much more advanced than her classmates.

Following this, she returned to Cambridge and her course of reading. Her intellectual maturity gained her the acquaintance of various Cambridge intellectuals. At this point in her life, her father moved the family to a farm. In this environment, she found herself very isolated and alone.

She also accepted the responsibility to educate her siblings while her mother was not well. Her father saw shew as not happy in this new life and he did not hide it. In an effort to placate her, he built a rustic shelter near the house for her to live. Timothy Fuller died suddenly of cholera on October 1, 1835.

Her mother, timid by nature and overcome with grief, turned helplessly to Margaret. She, Margaret, was now the head of the family. Timothy Fuller left no will. His financial affairs were in a tangle. Plagued by these financial difficulties after her father's death and meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson, she taught in Bronson Alcott's Temple School in Boston and then in Providence.

All the while, she continued to enlarge both her intellectual accomplishments and personal acquaintances. When Mrs. Fuller sold the farm in the spring of 1839 and Margaret moved the family to a delightful rural suburb of Boston called Jamaica Plain, she was now close enough to the city to put her plan into action. This plan, quite simply, was to gather together the most intelligent women of the area and hold conversations on various interesting and stimulating topics. This idea was a success and Margaret continued to hold two series of Conversations each year for the next five years, on subjects that ranged from the fine arts to the influence of women on their society. During the time of these discussion groups, Margaret also joined Emerson and others to found the Dial. She became a contributor from the first issue and its editor.

Margaret also wrote a book in this period based on a trip through the Midwest called Summer on the Lakes. This book led to her being invited by Horace Greeley to be literary critic at the New York Tribune. She also showed continuing support for feminist philosophies and published a book Woman in the Nineteenth Century which became a classic of feminist thoughts The next point of Margaret's life consisted of working for Horace Greeley. She also became involved with James Nathan.

They met each other in the greening countryside whenever they could. She called their love a holy love and finally on paper freely expressed her ardent feelings for him. But when he responded at their next meeting the passionate overtures, she timidly withdrew, reproaching him for misunderstanding the nature of her emotions. However, their meetings still continued. After James Nathan was a part of her path, Margaret was joyful as she went aboard the sailing steamship Cambria. Fuller traveled to Europe and sent back articles about European city life.

Those articles were published as At Home and Abroad. While traveling in Rome in 1847, Margaret fell in love with Marchese Giovanni Angelo d Ossoli. They united their two passions-for each other and for Italy. Margaret settled in to lodgings where Ossoli could visit her every day.

Margaret greatly changed during this experience. Soon after, she learned that she was to have a child with Ossoli. Because she was not married, though, she was filled with dismay. Ossoli tried hard to marry her directly, but due to financial difficulties he was unable to proceed with the marriage until the year after their child's birth.

During the Revolution of 1848 and the siege of Rome by French forces, Margaret assumed charge of one of the hospitals of the city, while her husband took part in the fighting. However, the city fell in 1850 and the Ossoli were forced to flee Rome. In May 1850, they sailed to America. They began sailing when the original captain contracted and died of small pox.

After continuing on their voyage, they had almost reached their final destination when their ship ran into a storm off the coast of NewYork. The ship was wrecked. The child was attempted to be saved by a steward, but searches were initiated and both the steward's and the baby's bodies were found. Neither Margaret or Ossoli were ever found. In my opinion, Margaret Fuller is a great person in history. She worked for everything she had and proved to be a success.

She was handed many difficult experiences in her life and many thought nothing of her. But, Margaret Fuller became a somebody. Margaret Fuller is a perfect example of a honorable role-model. She did not have a perfect life and made some mistakes in living, but when a mistake was obvious, she took responsibility and dealt with the outcome. She never gave up.