Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)

Dorothy Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of England where she spent eight years of her life with her family. After her mother died, her father sent away from her brothers to live with distant relatives; it is not until 1787 that she reunited with William then they decided to have a home together. After following Coleridge in Germany to learn the language they settled in Grasmere in 1799. Although Dorothy did not intend to be a writer she was very good at it; she made me understand her brother's poems, and his generosity. “ Her Grasmere journal is a fascinating chronicle of early nineteenth-century life in the Lake District: full of brilliant detailed descriptions of nature, account of domestic life and household labor.” (P1618) After reading her, I understood that William wrote about real life events, that he cared about the well being of society, that people should care about each. I actually went back and started reading him again but I still did not understand his poetry ( I just have an idea).

In Home Alone she explained how she was sad when her two brothers William and John (who lived with them) left for Yorkshire to visit Mary Hutchinson who became William Wordsworth’s wife. She described very beautifully the nature, a blind man walking with two sticks driving a beautiful bull and cow. She talked about a well-dressed woman who begged for a half penny that had never done it before; but is obligated because of the hard times. Another woman who came from Manchester came to beg in order to keep her three children and husband’s single grave to be taken away from her. She had a bill form the bank, but it was a cheat from the bank-I assume. I must say that the system back then was very unfair to the poor people, rich people cheated without pity. to say that people as many bodies in one grave is outragious and revolting; specially if poor people worked ten times more than rich but got poorer.

In A Beggar Woman From Cockermouth, Dorothy described the beautiful nature as her and William went to an excursion to meet Coleridge. There, they saw a woman with two little girls all starved and tired from the travel. The woman was 30 years old and had been left by her husband who pursued another woman. Dorothy was again moved by this woman story and gave her more money than asked for. I think that women were cheated by their husbands a lot back in those days, I wonder if William Godwin reach to people by saying that commitment was barbaric :) I can see that Dorothy related a lot on women, she wanted to make sure that readers undeerstood how women suffered more that men.

Dorothy Wordsworth, just like her brother had generosity for people who could not support themselves. She was a modest woman who did not even take credit for her great skills; for example on the letter she wrote to Lady Beaumont, she said that she did not deserved to be praised for her poems (An address to a child where she described the wind so well) that William published in his book. It is hard to believe that Dorothy was just writing in order to please her Brother, she is very creative; I must say that if she was doing it seriously she would have surpassed her brother.