‘I am not covetous, but as ambitious as any of my sex ever was, is, or can be’. ... Although I do not believe that Cavendish reaches any level of equal ground, she attempts to place herself intellectually, scientifically and spiritually with the likes of Plato and Descartes, in the tradition of a philosopher and seeker of knowledge. ... In such an age, a man could not achieve such god like status through appearance alone. ...
I believe, that rather than making the Empress’s beauty a prominent feature of her power, it is an aspect included to flatter the fantastical nature of the novel. ... Similarly she attacks the bear men’s use of microscopes;
‘…but, said she, nature has made your sense and reason more regular than art has your glasses, for they are mere deluders, and will never lead you to the knowledge of truth; wherefore I command you again to break them; for you may observe the progressive motions of celestial bodies with your natural eyes better than through artificial glasses’. ... Alternatively to this however, I think that Cavendish wholly believes in the Empress’s establishing of religion as a good progression, and that the religion she imposes is true. ... The Empress cannot imagine a world beyond her own world, and can not corporate with the ways of the new world. Her words in the ‘Epilogue to the Reader’ hold great irony, where she says;
‘…and if any should like the world I have made, and be willing to be my subjects, they may imagine themselves such, and they are such, I mean, in their minds, fancies or imaginations’. P 225
The Empress has not created a new world of her own – she has parodied the world of English society, only shaping it so that she is entitled to the praise and glory for its creation. ... In being chosen for the job, Cavendish places herself alongside the likes of Galileo, Gassendus, Descartes, Helmont, Hobbes etc, and describes herself to be;
‘…not one of the most learned, eloquent, witty and ingenious yet plain and rational’ p 181. ...
I believe that Cavendish’s construction of the nature of women in ‘The Blazing World’ is one which cannot hold any great value as a work for promoting women’s nature above and beyond the capabilities of men. The work is so wrapped in the social context of the time, and so narrow-minded, despite the fantastical setting of the story, that it does not at this point in time, show women’s capability for ‘sense’ and ‘reason’. ... And yet that the novel is self-conscious and ambitious does not construct the nature of women in the text to be stupid and ‘monstrous’. ... Marwood and three or four more, whom I never
saw before; seeing me, they all put on their grave faces, whispered
one another, then complained aloud of the vapours, and after fell
into a profound silence. ... 22
Both ladies are egging each other on to talk of their hatred of the male sex and their disassociation with love and affection. The characters are rivals, not by choice, but as a result of the nature of the society they live in. ... Both characters do not trust the men they have come into contact with, and claim that they are not content to let love take hold. ... Have I been false to her, through strict fidelity to
you, and sacrificed my friendship to keep my love inviolate? ... To you it should be meritorious that I have been vicious. ... 2,3, 29
Similarly, Millamant, whose wit and beauty cause Mirabell to fall sincerely in love with her, remarks that it is not in her interest to act with the aim of pleasing, since;
Millamant; Ones cruelty is ones power, and when one parts with ones cruelty one parts with ones power, and when one has parted with that, I fancy ones old and
ugly. ... Millamant in doing this, is ensuring that by becoming married and losing her independence, she will not lose her power and become hemmed in. ... And for that reason, I believe that her writing is exaggerated both in its esteeming of women as monarchical figures, and emphasis on her capabilities as a radical scientific figure, because she wants to make an impression on the reader. ... Yet though there is a greater respect for the nature of women, their character does not seem to be portrayed as greater than the character of men; as the women remain psychologically confined to their own domestic sphere.
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