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

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Unity Is Essential to Societal Success

Cavendish considers three separate societies to illustrate the importance of social unity to utopia.

The most successful society is the Blazing World, where no divisions of culture or beliefs exist between visually quite different peoples: “there was but one language in all that World: nor no more but one Emperor, to whom they all submitted with the greatest duty and obedience” (67). Under the rule of their absolute monarch, the citizens “live in a continued Peace and Happiness” (67). Cavendish makes the importance of unity clear when describing the Empress’s failed attempts to change some of the Blazing World’s laws and religious beliefs—a decision that immediately creates strife and conflict. Only when the Empress “ordered and settled her Government” (143) does peace and community return.

The war and instability experienced by the Duchess’s world and the Empress’s old world are directly connected to the absence of unified power structures and citizenry. The Duchess’s world—basically, our Earth—is the antithesis of unity, featuring deep divisions between peoples: It has “several soveraign Governments, Laws and Customs of several Nations” and “many several Nations, Governments, Laws, Religions, Opinions,” which are “very much disturbed with factions, divisions and wars” (126, 127). This lack of unity leads to unrest, conflict, and war, as its inhabitants become “Ambitious, Proud, Self-conceited, Vain, Prodigal, Deceitful, Envious, Malicious, Unjust, Revengeful, Irreligious, [and] Factious” (127).

Through the example of the Empress’s old planet, which is transformed into a quasi-Blazing World, Cavendish implies that Earth is also in need of transformation. Like the Duchess’s England, ESFI is ruled by a monarch whose power is limited by a council that moves slowly and indecisively because “many men have several Opinions” (148). Having multiple centers of political power creates disharmony, as ESFI has “grosser and duller understandings” of politics (149) than the Blazing World’s absolute rulers. The Empress attempts to correct this by making ESFI’s king the “most powerful Monarch in all that world” (151). When she flexes her military might, ESFI’s enemies accept the king of ESFI as world ruler, which, the text implies, leads the world to become a utopian society built on the Blazing World model—a model Earth should also adopt.

The Power and Potential of Women

Critics consider The Blazing World to be an early example of feminist literature because Cavendish uses it to illustrate the power and potential of women. Cavendish presents the Blazing World as an alternative to the patriarchy. By presenting a utopia run by women, Cavendish questions gender roles and underscores how the gender hierarchy harms English society.

The text’s primary women characters are never relegated to traditional women’s spheres: When the Lady is abducted, she does not submit to male authority, but instead becomes the leader of a fantasy world; the Empress is a mother to a son, but he is only mentioned in passing; finally, both the Empress and the Duchess are devoted wives, but neither is subservient to her husband. Instead, the Empress holds political power, as the Emperor “gave her an absolute power to rule and govern all that World as she pleased” (70), and ends up rescuing a world run by an incompetent male leader; meanwhile, the Duchess has the unceasing and unquestioning support of her husband for her literary and adventuring endeavors.

Cavendish also makes it clear that both women are the intellectual equals of the experts around them: They engage in scientific and philosophical discussions, and create new worlds based on idealist principles. The Empress, she engages in rigorous scholarly debate that reveals her “great and able judgment in Natural Philosophy” (93)—an unusual level of expertise for a woman at the time, and a position Cavendish herself aspired to. The Duchess gives sound military, political, and artistic advice to the imperial family. The Empress and Duchess create their own imaginary worlds, illustrating women’s ability to visualize a better society. Their gender does not act as an impediment to their goals and actions.

Cavendish exemplifies her feminist ideals in the way she wrote The Blazing World as well. Cavendish wrote under her own name, instead of publishing anonymously or under a male pseudonym. She is also assured of her talent; in her epilogue, she declares her “Creation was more easily and suddenly affected” (163) than those of male leaders like Caesar and Alexander the Great. Cavendish insists upon her own power and potential, and does not demur because of her gender.

The Value and Influence of Imagination

The value and importance of imagination are emphasized before the text even opens. In his prefatory poem, William Cavendish praises his wife’s “Creating Fancy [that] thought it fit / To make your World of Nothing, but pure Wit” (57).

Imagination, for Cavendish, is a tool for scientific and political discovery. In her reader’s note and epilogue, Cavendish defends combining a philosophical work with fiction, encouraging her readers to use their imaginations to “create Worlds of their own, and Govern themselves as they please” (163). Cavendish then connects logic and imagination—she explains that the two are “joined” as “two Worlds at the ends of their Poles (59-60).

Cavendish often emphasizes that fantasy does not preclude reason; rather, she insists that the two go hand in hand as satisfying intellectual work. When the Duchess creates a realm to rule, she “resolved to make a World of her own Invention, and [...] it was composed onely of the rational” (125-26). This world “appear'd so curious and full of variety, so well order'd and wisely govern'd, that it cannot possibly be expressed by words, nor the delight and pleasure which the Duchess took in making this World-of-her-own ” (126). The process mirrors Cavendish’s creation of the Blazing World—a utopia that uses fantasy to test theoretical ideas by reimagining social, political, and religious structures. The Blazing World is based on logic and science, but fueled by imagination.

The Empress and Duchess’s imaginary experiments lead to the development of new political systems. The Empress creates one that “was governed without secret and deceiving Policy; neither was there any ambition, factions, malicious detractions, civil dissentions, or home-bred quarrels, divisions in Religion, forreign Wars, &c. but all the people lived in a peaceful society, united Tranquility, and Religious Conformity” (126)—a vision of transparency that indirectly indicts England’s Civil War period for failing to live up to these ideals. This idyllic political system, it is suggested in the Epilogue, is that of the Blazing World itself. Cavendish urges readers to dream of other compelling utopias.