men of that time were feeling, helplessness. Still there was the concern that marriage was a sacred contract of the church. She addresses that concern with that statement that “the bible can be quoted on both sides”. Also she addressed the concern that marriage is a civil contract not to be broken. She raises the point that if marriage truly were a civil contract “it should be subject to the laws of all other contracts, carefully made, the parties of age, and all agreements faithfully observed. She pointed out, that on the contrary to the aforesaid, marriage is often enter into boy boys and girls twelve and fourteen years of age, without legal consent of their parents. In this speech, Stanton is very effective at addressing any doubts or questions the audience may have, without them ever having to question her. It was this ability to predict possible reasons for opposition that made her such a prominent speaker and leader in the women’s movement. In the end of this speech, she makes a final plea, that when marriage is based more on equality, then a “nobler type of manhood and womanhood will glorify the race!” This here, is great example of her attempt to widen the scope of the women’s movement, by suggesting that the equality of women will have a immense impact on all of mankind, not just women. The final speech that we will be looking at, which many consider to be one of the most moving statements of feminism, is titled “The Solitude of Self”(DuBois 246). The message of this speech was a demand for woman’s absolute self-reliance taking into account physical, emotional, financial, political, intellectual, and legal independence. Stanton argued that women must be free to take responsibility for their own lives. This speech differed greatly from many other of the speeches that she delivered, including the two that I talked about in this paper. Instead of inspiring her audience in...
