In Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls wrote about why women should be independent form men. She enlightened women to realize that they were suffering in the unequal situation. When I first time read Seneca Falls’ Declaration of Sentiments, I felt this article was very impressed because she used the language of Declaration of Independence to fight for women rights. I think that write in this way can address readers’ attention. For the people who had read Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence before, when they read this article, they might feel the article was interesting and want to know the detail, and then they might read closely. Some readers also contract this article with Declaration of Independence to order to see how Seneca Falls expressed her different opinions in the same written format of Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal.” Seneca Falls changed the whole feeling and meaning of the sentence by adding “women”. This difference makes me feel ironic. This adding makes people feel that those famous people who decided the draft of Declaration of Independence, like Jefferson and John Adams forget to write “women”, so she amended this in her article. This shows that the men and society were used to neglect the importance of women. Adding “women” emphasizes that women are equal as men. This action also sent out a message that if you, men, don’t give us the equal rights and always neglect our human rights, we will take actions to fight for this.
I think it is very difficult to express one’s own opinion by using the language of a famous document, so Seneca Falls did a great job. Her Declaration of Sentiments is very successful.
Rights between Women and men are equal today. However, Women do not have any rights in the beginning of the fund of America, even in the document of Declaration of Independence. Adding “women” shows us that Seneca Falls wants to shows the equal rights of women as men. I admire Seneca so much because she can show up to fight for women’s right in the famous document. It need courage and brave to do it in the beginning. She expresses her feeling about the Declaration of Independence and shows that she is proud of being a woman.Because of someone like Seneca, women gaint their rights and have a better life.
In my opinion, Declaration of Sentiments is not only a document which enlightened women to realize that they were suffering in the unequal situation, but also a document which directly argue with our society that man and women are created equal. All the language used in the article is direct and straightforward, for example, the author uses “He has never permitted her to exercise he inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has ……” Why the author use so many “He has……?” Obviously, it easy for readers to realize that there are too much “he has……” and it is so hard to find “she has.” It also causes readers to ask what does right she have. It is not enough to use the word “enlightenment “to describe the important role of the document.
I remembered that we had discussed the women’s rights before. Women as weak characters in society, they always ignore by others. Especially during the ancient time, Seneca wrote a document fought for women’s right. It will make big change on women’s life; women could get equal rights as men. By linking the enlightenment, I think Seneca wanted to enlighten women to fight for human rights. Women could also do contribution to community, not only men could. Nowadays women have more rights, such as education and voting right. As you can imagine how hard Seneca wrote the document to fight for women’s rights in hundreds years ago.