This is not an easy work to read because of its wealth of allusions and "evidence" (the rhetoric of overkill perhaps!). You'll want to "look for the gold," perhaps skimming the extensive examples.

Look at the title again: Man vs. Men; Woman vs Women. Who are the "figures" in debate here?

What does Miranda's story show about self-reliance? How do--and how should--men and women relate to each other? How are women's obstacles to self-reliance different from men's? What are their stories?

What forms of equal relationship in marriage does she describe? Why must women--and men--discover what "Woman's nature" is?

How do her ideas relate to those of Emerson and Thoreau (her friends)? (In other words, how is her feminism both American and transcendental?)