Life
Where was Cavendish born?
I was born in England, Newcastle.
What was the name of the play Cavendish wrote which we read for class?
The Convent of Pleasure
What was the idea that Cavendish put into her play?
Marriage, for women, is the source of their misfortune.
Could William Cavendish editing Lady Cavendish’s play change how it would be perceived?
Yes, a man's name is added to something created by a woman, possibly improving its status and indicating that he has control of the story.
What was Cavendish’s relationship to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I?
I was a maid of honor to the queen.
Who wrote the ending to The Convent of Pleasure? And what was their relationship to Cavendish?
William Cavendish, the First Duke of Newcastle. My husband.
What is the most prominent reason the ending of The Convent of Pleasure could be an unhappy ending?
Lady Happy was married (and tricked).
In her writings about women, why might she provide so many different opinions in one piece?
To provide many different reasonings and to provide a compromise that would make the most sense to her without coming out and outright stating what I truly think on the matter.
What was Cavendish’s “proposed” solution of making the newly opened monasteries convents of pleasure?
They take up extra space and something ought to be done with them that benefits the people, but they shouldn't necessarily be kept as religious institutions.
Why might the ending of The Convent have been edited?
The original story may have been too radical.
Would Cavendish say that humans have a material soul or an immaterial soul?
The human soul is the finer, rarer matter within our cruder material bodies.
There were two types of matter. One is inert and called “dull matter,” while the other type is finer, more rare, faster, and lighter.
Why might Cavendish have ended The Convent of Pleasure in a way that conforms to gender roles and sexuality?
The Convent of Pleasure proposed radical ideas, so to soften the blow and add an element of fantasy into the play, Lady Happy and the Prince get married to keep the peace for the readers while also planting the idea of men being the problem in people’s head.
What is Cavendish’s opinion on religious freedom?
Liberty of the mind would lead to liberty of the state and, therefore, anarchy. However, liberty of the mind, when reserved for private devotion, is an acceptable way to practice freedom of religion, which governments should grant their people.
How many genres did Cavendish write in? Can you name them?
7
Plays, Essays, Criticisms, Biography, Poetry, and Proto-science fiction.
How would Cavendish react to references to God in natural philosophy?
I'm skeptical of God’s nature in the way that faith leads to beliefs about God’s nature which is purely theological and entirely separate from natural philosophy.
I separate God and my philosophy, but often use God to make sense of my philosophy.
While Cavendish’s works were rediscovered by feminists, would Cavendish herself actually claim to be a feminist herself?
Some scholars find it hard to classify me as a true feminist.
I have many works that suggest I believe women to be naturally inferior to men. For Example, in Worlds Olio, I claim that women are inferior to men at rhetoric.
What is Cavendish’s position on the topic of gods?
We cannot assert the existence of things that are not observable in the material, natural world, and the investigations of gods are outside of this logic.
In Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, Cavendish writes that “there is an infinite difference between divine attributes, and natural properties; wherefore to similize [sic] our reason, will, understanding, faculties, passions and figures etc. to God, is too high a presumption, and in some manner a blasphemy.”
Cavendish wrote a group of speeches surrounding the topic of gender which were compiled in a work titled?
Orations of Divers Sorts.
The first oration was about the fact that men hold all the power, while women hold none.
Another oration posited that women may be able to achieve as much as men if only women could participate in traditionally masculine activities.
The very next oration suggested that women who engaged in masculine activities would become “hermaphroditical,” and should instead cultivate values such as humility and chastity.
In the fourth oration, the speaker suggests that feminine virtues are inferior to masculien virtues, and women should therefore actually pursue masculine virtues.
Finally, Cavendish writes a speaker to defend the claim that women are superior to men because, through beauty, women control men.
What would Cavendish say her political views on royalism and aristocracy are?
I support the rule of a King or Queen. In The Blazing World, I wrote that if people just accepted their birth positions in society then there would be social harmony.
Which book did Cavendish write to promote an interest in philosophy and science among women?
The Blazing World. It's a genre-defying book that is utopian, proto-science fiction, proto-feminist, and philosophical telling the story of a young woman who was abducted and then shipwrecked in a new world. She marries the Emperor and is given absolute power to govern the world which she creates a peaceful and ordered society. The world features men as human-like with different intellectual disciplines and offers a reflection on the relationship between men and women and women’s societal roles.