ipl-logo

The Blazing World Analysis

2007 Words9 Pages

In a preambled note ‘To all Noble and Worthy Ladies’ Margaret Cavendish outlines the structure of The Blazing World by declaring “The First Part is Romancical; the Second, Philosophical; and the Third is meerly Fancy’. Through the agency of misdirection, Cavendish disregards two important ideologies which epitomise any reading of the Blazing World. These two unspoken dominant discourses are; the concept of seeking a utopia through feminism and a utopia through the ambition of personal conquest. Throughout The Blazing World, Cavendish responds to the fundamental social problems within patriarchal society and provides a respondence to these specific dilemmas through the introduction of feminism. Cavendish also depicts her ambition of personal conquest through conveying her religious, scientific and philosophical methods throughout The Blazing World. Furthermore it is within these two disciplines, it is evident that Cavendish’s utopian impulse seeks to solve the fundamental social problems through the influence of conquest and feminism.

Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the …show more content…

Therefore, it not a question of the existence of Cavendish’s utopian impulse or her means to achieve one, but is instead a question of what medium she directs her pre-existing impulse towards. Although Cavendish’s recurrent feminist discourse is a dominant motif within the Blazing World as it is depicted in the novels, plot, structure and symbolism. Feminism may act as a form of misdirection from her own personal utopia; which is instead achieved through changing perspectives within the realms of science and philosophy as opposed to gender. This is further illustrated by the release of The Blazing World alongside her philosophical work ‘Observations Upon Experimental

Show More
Related
708 Words | 3 Pages

How is the separation of lovers and its consequences presented in the extract? This extract of Flora Macdonald Mayors ' novel, 'The rectors daughter ', develops the theme of hedonism being extingished by the misfortune of unrequited love, through the perspective of a middle aged woman of the 1920 's. Mary Jocelyn, the stories narrator, aims to persue the man of her desires, however his absence of affection is prominant in this extract when we discover his devotion to another woman. This extract is significant to the era, as newly upcoming 'flapper girls ' encouraged a future of female independence and open sexuality, but this segment leaves connotations that not all women took this lifestyle by storm, and still remained unsatisfied as a woman when unaccompanied by a husband, as shown through Mary 's characterisation in the text. Throughout the excerpt, the consequences faced by the separation of lovers is evident to leave a negative effect on the person on the receaving end.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

They show the harsh and cruel reality of the surrounding environment that women live in without framing that reality in beautiful frame. This is obvious in William Dean Howells’s “Editha” and Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”. Both Editha and Daisy share the same characteristic of the New Woman. These two women redefine the feminine ideology of women who suffer from following the social norms of their culture. They believe that women should have freedom as well as men, and they are responsible for making decisions in their lives without under

Read More
1101 Words | 5 Pages

In her essay Adeline Mowbray: Diverting the Libertine Gaze Roxanne Eberle also confirms that the novel is inspired on Wollstonecraft and Godwin’s relationship, but she goes a little further and suggests that more than a replica of the two “Jacobin” philosophers ‘lives the novel is a counteraction to Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. As an early admirer of Mary Wollstonecraft Opie could not accept the abhorrent position in which the Memoirs had placed her, so she wrote a novel that “examines the confusion which ensues when a women’s philosophical beliefs conflict with society’s notion about female sexuality”(1994: 123), and how that transgressive women is converted into a sexual object by a conservative society. For Patricia Mathew, more than a critique to Godwin’s concepts, the novel exhibits the impracticalities of those theories when applied to women in the late eighteenth century. Her analysis unfolds around the idea that Adeline Mowbray “takes its central theme from Wollstonecraft’s experiment in marriage with Godwin”(2007: 390) and arguments that Opie sets the basis for her fiction by using Wollstonecraft’s

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

As with all theories, this feminist approach to Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” does not come without its flaws. While it can be argued that this poem criticizes the performativity of feminine gender roles in a patriarchal society, this cannot be proven definitively without knowing the author’s original intentions. Furthermore, the poem does not give its readers enough information to conclude that the society the women live in is in fact a patriarchal society. This becomes evident, as there is no reference to any masculine figure – so any assumptions about the masculine-dominant culture are purely speculative. It is possible that Halfe wrote this poem in an attempt to challenge the gender binary, however one stands to question how successfully she is in doing so.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

100 years ago, the attempted annihilation of an entire race known as the Armenian genocide began. From 1914 - 1922, the massacres perpetrated by the government of Young Turks and later the Kemalist government aimed to eliminate all Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire (Armenian Genocide Museum - Institute). A population which had lived in the same region for centuries suddenly became nearly extinct. As for the cause, the outbreak of World War I provided the Young Turks an opportunity to solve the “Armenian question.” The Armenian question refers to the defence and liberty as well as fair treatment of Armenians during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire (United Human Rights Council).

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history, women have made a name for themselves. By rising up and fighting for something that they believed in, the Mirabal sisters made a name for themselves in the Dominican Republic and in Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies. By applying a theory to a novel, readers can relate the book to the world they are living in today (Davidson). Feminism can be defined as a dynamic philosophy and social movement that advocates for human rights and gender equality (“Feminism”). Feminist Theory involves looking at how women in novels are portrayed, how female characters are reinforcing stereotypes or undermining them, and the challenges that female characters face (Davidson).

Read More
1638 Words | 7 Pages

Her refusal to submit to her social destiny shocked many Victorian readers when the novel was first released and this refusal to accept the forms, customs, and standards of society made it one of the first rebellious feminism novels of its time (Gilbert and Gubar). This essay will discuss the relationships Jane formed with the men she encountered throughout the novel and will attempt to identify moments of patriarchal oppression within the story. The first act of patriarchal oppression Jane experiences is quiet early on it the novel, during her childhood years spent at Gateshead. It is here where she must endure to live

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

Her unsuppressed sexuality produces the appearance of a wild and uncontrolled woman, but in her relations with men she proves to be tamed and submissive. She is used, and often abused, by her powerful lovers, firstly, the colonial representative, the Englishman who fathered her child, and, secondly, the new neocolonial delegates: the General and the tycoon. For the renowned movie star, these men were “all the same… Carrying around her used panties as if they were a fetish, like a piece of her they had carved off, like her skin” (Hagedorn,226). Sex, for her, is the means of support, it provides her with luxury and she willingly accepts the price she has to pay in return.

Read More
750 Words | 3 Pages

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.

Read More
1285 Words | 6 Pages

The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Wollstonecraft an early feminist philosopher, writes about the ideals of equality and freedom both in her political rebuttal essay “Rights of Men” and her follow-up essay “Vindication of Women” in response to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Writing the “Vindication of the Rights of Men”, has led her to explore and express her opinions about the inequality of women during the Romantic period. As the opposition to post-revolutionary sentiment, extending rights as a just act to include the upper middle class of men, over maintaining the traditional rights given to men of nobility. Wollstonecraft interjects that women are also a vital importance to society and also deserve allowances of rights.

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

From the outset, literature and all forms of art have been used to express their author’s feelings, opinions, ideas, and believes. Accordingly, many authors have resorted to their writing to express their feminist ideas, but first we must define what feminism is. According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, feminism is “the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to achieve this state”. As early as the fifteenth century is possible to find feminist writings. Centuries later, and although she never referred to herself as one, the famous English writer Virginia Woolf became one of the greatest feminist writers of the twentieth

Read More
794 Words | 4 Pages

In the Victorian era, women were forced to marry, as they needed the security of a man. However, Austen uses logos to question the real inequality in the Victorian era’s ideology, that a woman is incomplete without a man. This allows the reader to analyse the state of society from a different perspective. Austen also starts her sentence with an assertive tone further supported with her firm word choices, through using the words, ‘…truth universally acknowledged’. These words are important in her building ethos allowing her to deliver her controversial message.

Read More
934 Words | 4 Pages

Their role in society was believed to be that of wife and mother but our mind was changing. Women started to fight for some rights such as the access to the labour force during World War I, the improvement in education allowing women to attend university, and the equality within the marriage, in order to avoid subordination of women. Probably their greatest achievement was the access to the electoral process in the United States of America. Earning the right to vote meant a recognition of women power and intelligence, as well as their ability to participate in politics. This essay will analyze how women fought for their right through some feminist movements.

Read More
1485 Words | 6 Pages

Jane Eyre, published in 1847, by focusing on its protagonist’s, Jane’s personality, dependency and self governance. The aim of this study is to look into Jane’s development and analyze her identity with the help of a theoretical framework drawn from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology, and within the context of the Victorian era. The novel focuses on Jane’s experiences and psychological growth from youth to adulthood. Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts or writings.

Read More

More about The Blazing World Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document