In Chapter 1 of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft begins to address the system of patriarchy and misogyny that subordinates women by improperly educating them. She uses a simile to characterize how egotistical men have become, through adhering to systems of government that elevate men because of riches or heredity instead of ability. Their belief that they deserve the riches and providence that has come their way is, in Wollstonecraft’s opinion, evidence of their overreaching their circumstances. Her simile allows her to suggest the usurping of a greater power:
Man has been held out as independent of his power who made him, or as a lawless planet darting from its orbit to steal the celestial fire of reason; and the vengeance of heaven, lurking in the subtile flame, sufficiently punished his temerity, by introducing evil into the world.
In this simile, Wollstonecraft compares mankind to a planet that has abandoned its proper path in favor of a more profitable route. She suggests that by stepping outside the natural order, mankind has stolen "the fire of reason," becoming unreasonable and ungovernable in their desire for power and greatness. Her simile therefore allows her to describe her view of the depravity of mankind’s ego—that man could ignore the right path and let greed falsely inflate his confidence. Such egotism, she will go on to argue, perpetuates unjust social systems like the monarchy—or patriarchy.
Wollstonecraft’s simile might also be a subtle reference to the Greek myth of Prometheus, a man who was bold enough to steal fire from the gods. His ego, and his lack of humility and understanding of order, led to great punishment. In her reference to this story, the stolen flame represents the ego of mankind and man's nerve to overturn order and reason.
In Chapter Two, Wollstonecraft addresses the myriad of false theories for what makes women subordinate to men, and discusses the nature of male-female relationships. Near the end of the chapter, she uses a simile to talk about the value of a woman’s imagination, and how it might be misused. Her language lays bare both the material conditions of women’s lives and the misogynistic distortions that affect their ability to function reasonably in the world:
And this would almost always be the consequence, if the female mind was more enlarged; for, it seems to be the common dispensation of Providence, that what we gain in present enjoyment should be deducted from the treasure of life, experience; and that when we are gathering the flowers of the day and reveling in pleasure, the solid fruit of toil and wisdom should not be caught at the same time.
Wollstonecraft uses a series of similes here; first she calls experience a treasure, and then shifts into natural imagery. Pleasure in experiences is like flowers, ornamental and useless when compared to the more solid attributes gained through work and hard thought. Wollstonecraft’s similes allow her to characterize what is valuable about life. Were women more educated, she argues, they would be able to focus on building lasting attributes instead of seeking pleasure—which, like flowers, is beautiful but less valuable and sustaining than the permanence of fruit (the results of hard work). She uses imagery to emphasize how it would be impossible to prize both, and is therefore able to succinctly explain one of the failures of the current system of education.
