The enlightenment period in England occurred most prominently in the eighteenth century and helped mold our current thoughts and values into what are accepted by our society today. Besides criticizing religion and broadening the range of science, enlightenment thinkers provided new points of view on society, politics, law, economics, and the overall course of history. The enlightenment period tried to replace a religious worldview with a view more associated in human reason. Many of the older values in England were replaced by human reason in order to combat ignorance, tyranny, and superstition in efforts to build a better world.
             However, not all of these enlightenment thinkers would agree that a better world was being attained by this period. Underneath of the silver lining that the enlightenment period presented, sat the rest of the society, which was not making progress. The rest of society was actually regressing. The rights of women were non-existent, the middle class (Bourgeoisie) was paying taxes to support a fabulously expensive aristocracy, and the poor were multiplying at alarming rates, leaving more and more empty stomachs on the streets. As the rich were getting richer, the poor suffered while still trying to serve their country as best as they could. There were writers of this period that are less celebrated for their work, yet these writers had important messages of warning that could be heard very clearly because they spoke of the harsh truth's of this period.
             Sarah Stickney Ellis wrote a piece called The Women of England, in which she depicts the role that woman played in England during the enlightenment period. Women in the middle class were seen as the moral backbone of the English society. The middle class was seen as having the moral power and intelligence of the country and was also designated as the pillar of England's strength. Ellis writes that the middle class woman receives the notio...