The Blazing World Themes

In The Blazing World, which is often considered an early utopian novel and pioneering work of science fiction, Margaret Cavendish writes of a young noblewoman who gets kidnapped and brought to another, parallel world, where the inhabitants care for her and make her their Empress. But these inhabitants are not ordinary human beings: they’re monstrous, fantastical, yet benevolent animal-human hybrids, like bear-men, fish-men, giants, and satyrs. Once she becomes Empress…

When she published The Blazing World in the 17th century, Margaret Cavendish was already remarkable in several ways: while most women writers modeled themselves after men, even to the point of using male pseudonyms, Cavendish insisted on writing under her own name and imagining an alternative universe where women rule with the same power and gusto as men. In fact, this is why critics often consider The Blazing World as an important precursor to modern…

The most eye-catching portions of The Blazing World are no doubt the Empress’s fantastical journey from one world to another, descriptions of the Blazing World’s remarkable nature and creatures, and magnificent military campaign to conquer the world that she originally came from. But almost half of the book also consists of her in-depth philosophical, scientific, and religious dialogues with the creatures and immaterial spirits in her new world. Each group has a specific occupation…

The plot of The Blazing World centers on the Empress’s scientific, political, and military ambitions. But while the Empress structures her life and government around these interests, they aren’t her greatest source of pleasure or satisfaction. Instead, even after she conquers the world and learns everything she can possibly know about it, her deepest desire is to spend time with her beloved Platonic friend, the Duchess (a fictionalized version of Margaret Cavendish herself)…