Importunate Persuasions: Anxiety of Authorship and the Female Fight for Self-Sovereignty

In Marg art Cavendishs essay The Blazing World she dos a reality of her protest where she rules as a sovereign and is afforded a power that would non otherwise be possible for her if whatsoever should like the valet de chambre I have made and be willing to be my subjects, they may hypothesize themselves such, and they atomic number 18 such, I mean in their minds notwithstanding if they cannot endure to be subjects, they may create demesnes of their hold in and govern themselves as they please (1785).In this passage, Margaret Cavendish exposes her make idiosyncratic philosophy annoyanceing her linear perspective in society as a woman, fe manful author and a member of a court that was ostracized. By prolifically writing round herself, she attempts to discoverment her right to a voice and uses it as an instrument of power and resistance in an oppressed and powerless situation. However, her talking to bears traces of an indispensableization of the oppressive accessi ble structure and an misgiving of piece of music1 that prevents her from successfully establishing herself as autonomous.In this essay, I will attempt to demonstrate how Margaret Cavendish, through her poetry and prose, endeavors to master self- sovereignty through singularity but fails callable to care of social aberration from not simply the patriarchal hegemony but excessively from the women of her era that perpetuated it. In The Poetesss Hasty Resolution, Margaret Cavendish establishes herself as not only a poet but a gifted one at that. Reading my verses, I want them so well/Self-love did make my judgment to rise/persuasion them so good, I thought more than to preserve (1-3).Here, Margaret introduces her desire for self-sovereignty and her sign willingness to exercise it through the vocation of writing. She writes of a self-love initiated by the telephone of her own voice and empowers her to fight one time morest the status quo, to rebel. She decides to go abou t her rebellion through writing and putting forth the fe antheral voice. However, she compromises her own self-adulation with the lit crit that she receives. She recognizes and notes that others appose her voicing her opinion Considering not how others would them like (4).By interjecting this criticism in with her self-congratulatory treatise, she refutes them with an impervious tone in her language, as if she intended to rebel and dismiss the interpreters response to her style. Conversely, she also ac noesiss them, within the commencement exercise four lines of her poem, which alludes to a deep concern. This indicates a woman who cares deeply for what others think. This concern could be due to her beat in society. Being the married woman of a Duke and lady to an ostracized Queen, it was well within her interest to be advised of her social milieu.Moreover, the aristocracy was used to people caring about what they thought and effecting how others acted and spoke, in other words, exercising their hegemony. While she is amongst this power structure, she pushes the limits of her position and acceptance by speaking out and seeks to establish agency, which was not readily afforded to women in the 17th century. Even though Margaret Cavendishs rank was high-pitched enough to savour an element of immunity, she expresses concern over the fragility of her position.In A True relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life Margaret appreciates how the breadth of her status is afforded to her through marriage, second wife to the Lord Marquis of bracingcastle, for my lord having had two wives, I might slow have been mis make watern, especially if I should die and my lord marry again (1780). Her language seems humble yet uncertain. One could postulate that this uncertainty is due to her position world conditional of a priapic counterpart. In her texts, she relies hard upon a male for information and education.In A True Relation she diminishes her own ability I had a nat ural stupidity (1779) and relays how she would be interdependent upon a male member of her household to explain matters to her and when I read what I downstairsstood not, I would ask my brother he organism learned, the sense of meaning thereof (ibid). Quickly following this passage, she resorts to gender performance1 my unspoilt show could not be much, by reason I took neat glamour in attiring, fine dressing and fashions (ibid). By positing herself within a socially accepted arena for women, she at once becomes less vile to her womanish readership.However, she shows her anxiety of authorship that Sarah Gilbert and Susan Gubar define as a egg-producing(prenominal) authors anxiety of being judged by male readers, critics, etc. thus they will compromise their own voice in an attempt to placate the male gaze2 and save themselves from alienation Her battle, however, is not against her (male) forerunners reading of the world but against his reading of her. In club to define her self as an author she must redefine the terms of her enculturation, (Gilbert and Gubar, 2027).Gilbert and Gubars solution for this is a effeminate author must counterchange the male precursor or influence with a female, at once helping to her to identify with her own sex and giving her an alliance in which to fight patriarchal control. However, if women themselves perpetuate male hegemony, this can prove difficult. In The Blazing World, Margaret creates a new world in order to fuck off and exercise the ambition and power that she desired. This new world becomes a fable for the real world with which she parallels it.In this new world, it is finally safe for her to tackle male hegemony head on and she attempts to do this with analogies of what men become. In her customized world, men take on animal characteristics. Some examples are worm-menfox-menant-menape-men (1781) most of which could be considered derogatory and most certainly diminutive. By othering the male species and mak ing them sub-human, Margaret can successfully exercise control in her realm. She also employs this tactic in The hunt club of the Hare in which Wat, a male, is a hare being run and assuming a secondary and fragile position. However her anxiety of authorship recurs.After assigning animal counterparts for the male species in The Blazing World, she quickly reiterates that she thus receives power from the emperor. The empress and the Duchess, both as Margaret in a fragmented state, are informed and educated by priests and statesmen, both male, of the affairs of the government and the church. These figures, which could arguably also represent elements of Margarets own psyche particularly the internalized male gaze, attempt to release their exclusion of women from places of worship and matters of the state as they are importunate persuasions or threatening figures of change (1782).Furthermore, when she herself describes the power one could exercise in their own world, she does so by u sing masculine pronouns he may create a world of what fashion and government he willas he pleasesas he thinks bestalso he may alter that world (1784). Thus, Margaret once again crumbles under the pressure of anxiety of authorship due to fear of social backlash. In a previously quoted passage, Margaret Cavendish uses reason as the justification for her self-diminution my serious study could not be much, by reason I took great delight in attiring, fine dressing and fashions (1779).OED defines reason as A assertion of many fact (real or alleged) employed as an argument to justify or condemn some act, prove or disprove some assertion, idea, or belief . However, her usage of the word reason evolves. Reason subsequently becomes the conduit for her introduction of the world in which she can rule as a sovereign, as Margaret the First This is the reason, why I added thisto my philosophical observations (1781). Her language when referring to herself in The Blazing World is authoritarian I shall account myself as a happy creatoress (1780) authoress of a whole world (1784), etc.Although initially she claims to merely be a scribe to the empress of this imaginary world, there is evidence that Cavendish actually sees herself as the empress. In the first paragraph she sees two worlds, the world in which she exists as Margaret Cavendish and the Blazing World, as antipodes of each other, thus making them parallel and fall in them as two worlds at the ends of their poles (1780). She goes on to describe the world of her creation it is a description of a new worlda world of my own creating, which I call the Blazing World (ibid).As she posits herself in an supreme position of power as creatoress and authoress (idem) she herself is sovereign, thus the empress could easily be taken as her. This is foster evidenced within the romantic beginning of the narration. The empress is foretell as a goddess and the object of the emperors affection, paralleling the empresss story with that of her own receipt of power and title through marriage. By aligning herself with a female figure of power, she at once establishes a female precursor but also empowers herself in fighting the alienation of hegemonic criticism.The fiction of this alignment is interesting. One would figure that she had a very powerful female precursor in Queen Henrietta Maria however the Queens power was jeopardized by Charles execution and her banishment. Also, this particular alignment had proved precarious as it caused the loss of her and her husbands estate (albeit temporarily). Thus, it was necessary for Margaret to create a new female figure of authority with which she could associate herself. Her internal conflict of desperately wanting to speak out but being checked by fear of societal repercussions is exercised in interesting ways.Margaret is aware of the perpetuation of the male hegemony through women and illustrates her frustrations through her texts. Women would most likely make up Margarets ideal readership however one can shot that they have also been the source of a great deal of her criticism. In The Poetesss Hasty Resolution, Margaret signifies the she as the source of her criticism Will you, say she, thus waste your time in vain On that which in the world small praise shall gain? For shame, leave off, said she, the newswriter spare Hell lose by your ill poetry, I fear.Besides the world hath already such a weight Of useless books, as it is overfraught. consequently pity take, do the world a good turn, And all you write cast in the fire and burn. (9-16) In this incendiary passage, Margaret exposes many elements of oppression perpetuated by women upon women. The idealized female precursor and intended source of support, demeans Cavendishs art and directly exercises male hegemonic social pressures upon her. First, they attempt to induce fear in her of womens destructive capability upon their husbands if they do not tie down to gendered social norms.Se cond, these critics try to instill her with an anxiety of influence4 by purporting that there are enough things to read in the world and she is not worthy of authorship. Finally, the female critic entreats her to immediately quit her education and stifle her ambitions, as knowledge and ambition are not becoming of a lady. However, Margaret reifies her own anxiety and realizes the danger of this importunate persuasion (ibid) and persists Then all in downfall I to the press it sent/Fearing persuasion might my book prevent (19-20). The betrayal by her own sex does little to incite chumminess in Margaret.To empower herself against an oppressive but generative hegemonic control that is kindle upon her by other women, she attempts to distinguish herself through singularity. I would dislike if any should follow my fashions, for I always took delight in a singularity (1779). Thus, one may understand why Margaret would desire to set herself apart from her sex, as they did not prove to be an agreeable group with which to identify. However, to be alienated and excluded was a dire circumstance for a woman in seventeenth century Britain.She had already experienced banishment and understood how crocked the repercussions proved for stepping outside the societal ideal. Thus, if Margaret Cavendish could achieve renown and be considered excellent, she could achieve social currency. This accreditation would be what she would need to stave off the scorn of the more strict members of society. She achieved the respect of some accomplished members of society, mainly men, and cunningly realise that the best place with which to exercise her reason was through her status in society.The complex and uncomfortable dynamic of desiring to remain in a position of influence and imperatively needing to utilize her own voice regardless of the overweight hegemonic resistance against it is a brave endeavor but a unavailing one. In order to remain amongst a group, one must oblige to its r ules and be amenable to its policies. Although, Margaret Cavendish couldnt fully achieve self sovereignty in her own time, she provided future female writers with a precursor to the libber writers what would succeed her. Through her struggle she gives other authoresses the support she herself would have appreciated.Although, she herself neer achieved self sovereignty through singularity, she proved to be more than just a great emulator (1779). Works Cited pantryman, Judith. Gender Trouble Leitch 2488-2501. Gilber, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar The Madwoman in the Attic The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Leitch 2023-2035. Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. 8th ed. New York, NY W. W. Norton and Company, 2006. 1773-1784. Leitch, Vincent, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York, NY W. W. Norton and Company, 2001. Footnotes 1.Gender performance is a theory derived by Judith Butler which states tha t the everyday actions of women and men are a performance of societal expectations and gendered norms and further more that this performance perpetuates the social constructs places upon us that define what it means to be male or female, man or woman, i. e. men refusing to cry, women wearing high heels etc. 2. The male gaze is a poststructuralist feminist theory stemming from Michel Foucaults utilization of the panopticon in surveillance society. This theory places male hegemony in the position of the panopticon and women self correct under its gaze.