𝐻𝑜𝓌 𝒹𝑜 𝐸𝓁𝒾𝓏𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓉𝒽 𝐼, 𝒾𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝑜𝑒𝓂𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝑒𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓈, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓉 𝒞𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓈𝒽, 𝒾𝓃 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒟𝑒𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒶 𝒩𝑒𝓌 𝒲𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹, 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒲𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹, 𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓂𝓅𝑜𝓇𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒻𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝒶𝓈𝒸𝓊𝓁𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝓇𝓊𝒸𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝑜𝓁𝒾𝒹𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇?
The factor of gender has been a compelling topic during the renaissance period of England. Queen Elizabeth 1 along with Margaret Cavendish, played a major role to break masculinity from the monarchy at that time.
In fact, Elizabeth 1 was called the virgin queen for a reason; she didn't marry anyone and ruled over an entire empire on her own. This showcases how much she devoted herself to feminism and how much she rejected the patriarchal society where men were the only governors. "Though I be a woman, yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had." she said. This speech for instance, describes how much courage she had and how much she wanted to enforce the feminine gender. Besides, her speeches and letters established her image and power amongst other writers with rhetorical skill.
In fact, Elizabeth 1 was called the virgin queen for a reason; she didn't marry anyone and ruled over an entire empire on her own. This showcases how much she devoted herself to feminism and how much she rejected the patriarchal society where men were the only governors. "Though I be a woman, yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had." she said. This speech for instance, describes how much courage she had and how much she wanted to enforce the feminine gender. Besides, her speeches and letters established her image and power amongst other writers with rhetorical skill.
She also wrote a few speeches in Latin at both Cambridge University and Oxford to demonstrate that women are capable to learn and study different languages without any difficulty. Consequently, education was the key to establish her identity as a cultivated queen in an era where women were segregated. She describes herself as loving, brave, clear, and ambiguous as the same time which played an important role in conserving her powers as a Queen. "On monsieur's departure" for instance, was written to express her feelings due to the difficulties she experienced as a woman, and to explain that England is a priority for her. The monarch did her best against the anti-feminist critics to improve the role of women in the society and to prove that they are extraordinary and flexible. She also used the fact that God is the only one who appoints the head of the monarchy to ensure her position, and that everything she achieved was brilliant on the contrary of what men think of women concerning their skills and expertise. Even though the Elizabethan society relies on men's supremacy, she told women that their power comes from the heart, courage, and reason. In this context the following quote make the idea easy to understand: "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too “. So, there is an unbreakable bond between the two genders, but women, practically, have their own qualities and characteristics, and they also possess men's bravery due to their beauty. She inevitably pushed men to view her reign as a representative of power and clarified that females are competent and skillful. Moreover, she fused her works with many heroines like Diana, Astraea and Gloriana the ‘’Faerie Queene’’ who is a glorified version of herself. On the other hand, Margaret Cavendish, who is a brilliant fictional writer, depicts in her marvelous story "a blazing world" many themes which are related to questioning the gender influence on the society. Correspondingly, contemporary elements of literature, science and religion carries a huge impact on how she perceives femininity and masculinity. In other words, gender affected her ideologies so she used different sorts of creatures to represent the types of men and illustrate how an empress can control and guide them. The combination between romantic and fantastic themes helped her to describe the utopian world she wants to live in. Moreover, the reversal between men and women's roles and expressing her desire to dominate is specified when she married the emperor and when she gets treated like his goddess and his everlasting companion. Furthermore, she used both science and philosophy to express the negative judgment that thinkers had towards women at that time. So, she changed society by her writings and ideas because she wanted women to be independent. For this reason, she fabricated her own characters with a touch of science, philosophy, and fantasy: spidermen, fox-men, ape-men and lice-men act like contemporary figures and personalities. What she mentioned in her story is that women lack power, but they can gain confidence and even perhaps dominance and influence if they followed masculine moralities and goodness. The success of the protagonist in the story points out that Cavendish rejects sexism and she investigates different ideas on natural philosophy which is related to romance and fantasy; she wanted to spread her ideas on feminism through fiction and she hoped that women would join her in the pursuit of knowledge and science. To be more precise, Cavendish wants to build a perfect society of women reaching the top of success and intelligence. For this reason, she emerged into the character of the empress to establish feminine presence in England. The mysticism about the Cabbala is a genius idea that Margaret invented, because the book itself symbolizes enlightenment, scientific rationality, and logic. The enlightenment is a new beginning for women and for feminine progress.
𝐵𝓎 𝒴𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝐹𝒶𝓇𝒽𝒶𝓉
