Margaret Fuller's Autobiographical Sketch: The Making of a Scholar

Introduction to the "Autobiographical Sketch". In The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, which her friend Ralph Waldo Emerson helped edit, is found a short but highly informative piece entitled "Autobiographical Sketch." In it Fuller addresses the forces that shaped her early childhood years and gives insights into a love affair she began to develop with Rome that would last until her death. No one had a greater influence in making Margaret Fuller who she would become than her father, Timothy, a Harvard-trained lawyer. Though Fuller refers to her mother as "angelic" and sings her praises, she makes it clear that her mother had little input in her daughter's education.

An event that really cemented the intensity of study that would define Margaret's childhood was the death of her baby sister. "My first experience was one of death," writes Fuller of this sad occasion. "I was left alone" (Memoirs 2:66). Immediately, Margaret became the center of attention in the family, and her father set up a rigorous course of homeschooling.

The Rigors of Homeschooling and Intellectual Precocity. "I was put at once under discipline of considerable severity" and had "a more than ordinary high standard presented to me." Even when her father worked long hours, he demanded that Margaret recite to him every evening no matter how late he arrived home. Fuller remarks that this high expectation was a great source of personal anxiety.

She writes that the "consequence was a premature development of the brain, that made me a 'youthful prodigy' by day, and by night a victim of spectral illusions, nightmare and somnambulism." Ironically she predicted she would go "to a premature grave," though it was the taxing nature of her study rather than a storm at sea that she thought would be the cause. She proclaims, "I had no natural childhood!" (Memoirs 1:73). What she did have was an experience so demanding and lacking in childhood entertainments that she says she "was driven for refuge . . . to the world of books" (Memoirs 1:56).

Many of these were assigned texts that she was compelled to digest and report on to her father, who "had no belief in minds that listen, wait, and receive" (Memoirs 1:55). Thus, she honed her speaking skills and her ability to discourse on a wide variety of topics with precision and clarity. Painful as the acquisition may have been, these skills would later serve her well during the period she conducted her Conversation Club in Boston.

The Enduring Fascination with Roman Antiquity. Finally, she dedicates a large section of the "Autobiographical Sketch" to her infatuation with all things Roman. She loved Ovid for his ability to make "Gods and Nymphs" come alive. Latin became second nature. She devoured Dante's The Divine Comedy. What really inflamed her, however, were the tales of the great men of Rome and their passion for action.

She states, "In vain for me are men more, if they are less, than Romans" (Memoirs 1:76). Perhaps not surprisingly, Margaret would, many years after this period, fall in love with Giovanni Ossoli, a wild-eyed Italian revolutionary leader, during the siege of Rome.

For Discussion or Writing. The following prompts facilitate critical engagement with the text and encourage personal reflection on the themes presented. These questions are designed for classroom discussion or written analysis. They aim to connect the autobiographical insights of Margaret Fuller to broader universal experiences of upbringing and heritage.

1. Every person's childhood informs his or her adult life in profound ways. In terms of "Autobiographical Sketch," how does Fuller suggest her early years influenced the woman she became?

2. To what degree do you think we should dwell upon and analyze the decisions made by our parents and guardians concerning our upbringing? What factors determine the effect heritage has on a person's future?