The Blazing World

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1666

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prefatory Materials

Part 1, Pages 61-70

Part 1, Pages 70-100

Part 1, Pages 100-119

Part 1, Pages 119-141

Part 2

Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Part 1, Pages 119-141Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 119-141 Summary

When the Duchess appears, she apologizes for her bad handwriting. The Empress states that a secretary will transcribe it. To create their kabbalah, the Duchess suggests consulting a famous Jewish figure like Moses, but the Empress trusts the spirits more. The Duchess worries that the spirits are as unknowing as humans on certain subjects, and advises leaving scriptural interpretation to experts. The Duchess rejects the Empress’s ideas for what kind of kabbalah to create. A philosophical kabbalah is out because their work must probe further than what is knowable through logic and reasoning. A moral kabbalah runs counter to faith, as morality is very straightforward to God. A political kabbalah is dismissed because government is only concerned with reward and punishment. Then, the Duchess suggests a poetic or romantic kabbalah that uses figurative language, which allows for wider interpretation. The Empress agrees. Before the Duchess is sent back to her world, she asks to visit occasionally. They become close, becoming Platonic lovers, an intimate and deep type of friendship.

On her next visit, the Duchess is noticeably upset, admitting that she wants to be a princess. The Empress reassures her that a duchess outranks a princess, since a duchess earns her title and a princess inherits hers. When the Duchess is still unsatisfied, the Empress petitions the immaterial spirits to make the Duchess the empress of her world. The spirits materialize and explain that there is an infinite number of worlds, though the Duchess cannot become empress of an inhabited world, as these worlds already have their own leaders. The Empress wants to conquer one, but the spirits dissuade her: Conquering a world makes a leader feared, and thus susceptible to being deposed. The spirits instead suggest the Duchess rule a celestial world of her imagination, which will be easier to control. The Duchess agrees, and the Empress declares she will do the same.

After the spirits leave, the Empress and the Duchess create many celestial worlds. The Duchess bases her first world on the work of ancient philosophers. This world falls apart. She then creates one using her imagination. This world is perfect and the Duchess takes great pleasure building it. The Empress tries to build many worlds but fails. The Duchess shows the Empress her world, which impresses the Empress so much she wants to live in it, but the Duchess instead helps the Empress build a world of effective laws and beautiful art. The Empress then devotes herself to building this world, as the Blazing World is already perfect.

The Empress is curious about the Duchess’s home planet. The Duchess warns her that Earth is divided and violent, but the Empress persists and asks the spirits to place her soul in the Duchess’s body so they can travel back to the Duchess’s world together. As the Empress surveys the different nations, she notes that all are ambitious, dishonest, and selfish. She wonders why nations are willing to sacrifice so many people in war to only slightly expand their territory. Despite these criticisms, the Empress finds her own world boring by comparison. The Blazing World should find a middle ground between total peace and constant war.

They search for the most perfect country on the Duchess’s planet. They reject Turkey because it follows Islamic law. England has a smaller government and happier people. There, the Empress enjoys a play, but finds the actors unnatural and wonders why writers base their plays on existing stories. Still, the Empress finds the King and Queen of England delightful.

The Duchess, missing her husband, visits him and takes the Empress with her. The narrator interjects to explain that since the women’s souls are sharing the same physical body, no one else can hear or see them. When the Empress is impressed with the Duke’s estate, the Duchess explains how the Civil War destroyed parts of it, along with many palaces, forests. When the Duke walks in, the Duchess’s spirit spins in joy. As he rides horses and practices sword fighting, the Duchess worries about him, which causes her soul to enter his body. The Empress’s soul follows, so that all three are in the Duke’s body. The Empress admires the Duke’s soul, which causes the Duchess to become jealous until she realizes that the Empress is simply expressing Platonic love.

A spirit appears and advises the Empress to go home to the Blazing World because her soul misses the Emperor. Before leaving, the Duchess laments that Fortune has not favored the Duke. She requests that the Empress mediate the disagreement between the two. To make sure the Duke receives fair representation, he sends Prudence and Honesty to plead his case.

However, in the Blazing World, Fortune is too fickle to hear the Duke’s case, so the women convince Truth to be the trial judge. Fortune declares the Duke an enemy who has always preferred Honesty and Prudence over luck. The Duchess defends her husband, accusing fickle Fortune of ruining his estates and reputation. The Duke respects Fortune and asks for her future friendship. The vices Folly and Rashness compete to represent Fortune in court and Rashness wins. Rashness suggests that Fortune should treat the Duke and Duchess more poorly. Prudence desires to improve the relationship between the Duke and Fortune. Honesty insists that everyone speaks truthfully and describes the Duke’s many virtues, including Gratitude, Charity, Justice, Honor, and Experience. Enraged by Honesty’s speech, Fortune disappears.

The Empress agrees to send the Duchess back to her world and asks for a final piece of advice on ruling the Blazing World. Because of her changes to its religion and government, different groups are fighting and the Empress fears a rebellion. The Duchess advises reverting the Blazing World to its original political and religious systems and abolishing the scientific societies. Undoing the Empress’s changes won’t be disgraceful—instead, it will show wisdom and honor. The women’s souls share a kiss and cry. They pledge to remain Platonic friends.

Part 1, Pages 119-141 Analysis

This section allows Cavendish to explain again why she decided to include The Blazing World with her other scientific work: The Blazing World is, in fact, the “Poetical or Romancical Cabbala” (121) that the Duchess suggests the Empress make, after rejecting religious, philosophical, moral, and political kabbalahs as unsuitable for her purpose. As the Duchess suggests, Cavendish uses poetic “Metaphors, Allegories, Similitudes” so that readers can “interpret them as [they] please” (121).

The Duchess’s “extreme Ambition” (121) to be a princess reflects Cavendish’s desire for fame. The Duchess yearns to rule so intensely that “neither she her self, nor no Creature in the World was able to know either the height, depth or breadth of her ambition” (121). While Cavendish never sought absolute political power, she herself was ambitious in her quest for respect as an intellect. The Blazing World solves both women’s aspirations with the science fictional concept of the multiple habitable planets: The Duchess can imagine a world to rule, while Cavendish can display her multifaceted body of knowledge by worldbuilding within her text.

This section tackles the theme of political and military power that will emerge as an important throughline for the rest of the text. When the Empress suggests conquering an inhabited world, the spirits criticize using military force and advocate for benevolent rule. Interestingly, their argument is not based on moral objections to violence, but instead on a pragmatic approach to marshalling political power: “conquerers seldom enjoy their conquest, for they being more feared then loved, most commonly come to an untimely end” (122). Not all world models are successful. The Duchess builds worlds based on the ideas of Pythagoras, Plato, Epicurus, Aristotle, Descartes, and Hobbes, but their old theories are not suitable for the present, and these worlds need to be “annihilated” and “dissolved” (124, 125). The Duchess instead “resolved to make a World of her own invention” (125), one “so curious and full of variety, so well order’d and wisely govern’d” (126).This world finally allows the Duchess to govern well.

Cavendish structures the events of the text to confirm her political convictions. To advocate for absolute monarchy, Cavendish argues that having “so many several Nations, Governments, Laws, Religions, [and] Opinions” (127) creates divisions, as happens when the Empress makes changes in the Blazing World. Cavendish’s Royalist sympathies are on display in her description of English royalty. The fictional versions of King Charles II and Queen Henrietta Maria have “much Majesty and affability mixt so exactly together” (129); the whole “Royal Family seem’d to be endued with a Divine splendor” (130). Cavendish’s lavish praise reflects her hopes that the monarchy would be restored to its full glory.

Biographical details of Cavendish’s real life inform the visit to the Duke’s estate. Like the real William Cavendish, the Duke has lost his estates and fortunes in a “long Civil War” (131). Echoing Cavendish’s desire to restore her husband’s estates and her work on his behalf in court, the Duchess arranges a trial to extol her husband's virtues and correct what she sees as a grievous mistake—a fair trial that is only available in the utopian Blazing World. Cavendish uses personification—giving human characteristics to inanimate figures—to give agency to the Virtues and Vices. Virtues like Prudence and Honesty can then authoritatively vouch for the Duke’s nobility of spirit, while Vices such as Folly and Rashness can explain why Fortune calls the Duke an enemy. Cavendish’s use of long speeches allows her to fully explore the nature of each of these qualities and connect them to her husband. This technique hearkens back to earlier texts such as Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1596), which makes extensive use of personification to build its political allegory.

The end of first part reveals Cavendish allegorical intentions. When the Empress changes The Blazing World’s religious and political systems, fighting begins and she fears a rebellion. This situation mirrors that of England’s during the Civil War and Interregnum periods. The Duchess’s reinforces the connection, warning that the Blazing World “may in time prove as unhappy, nay, as miserable a World as that is from which I came” (140). Cavendish hopes to inspire her readers to seek a more utopian country as the Duchess outlines her solutions: “alter the Government thereof from what it was when you began to govern it” and “dissolve all” the scientific societies (140), thus ending the factionalism Cavendish rejects.