 Both of Wollstonecraft 's novels criticize what she viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage and its deleterious effects on women . In her first novel , Mary : A Fiction ( 1788 ) , the eponymous heroine is forced into a loveless marriage for economic reasons ; she fulfils her desire for love and affection outside of marriage with two passionate romantic friendships , one with a woman and one with a man . Maria : or , The Wrongs of Woman ( 1798 ) , an unfinished novel published posthumously and often considered Wollstonecraft 's most radical feminist work , revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband ; like Mary , Maria also finds fulfilment outside of marriage , in an affair with a fellow inmate and a friendship with one of her keepers . Neither of Wollstonecraft 's novels depict successful marriages , although she posits such relationships in the Rights of Woman . At the end of Mary , the heroine believes she is going " to that world where there is neither marrying , nor giving in marriage " , presumably a positive state of affairs . 
