Margaret Cavendish's Fourth Oration: Should Women Should Imitate Men '

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Margaret Cavendish makes a claim in her fourth Oration that women should "imitate men" (163). In order for women to gain, equality among sexes women must participate in the activities and lives of men. To be masculine as he is and gain the insight of his world and disregard almost the world set aside for women. She begins to gather that women need to compete to gain. Skewing gender roles in her wake Cavendish starts a campaign to make women men. Cavendish goes on to say that not only do women have to imitate men in the physical plane but also in the intellectual aspect; furthering the theme of education for equality while also spinning it. Women must speak to one another as men would, and widen their minds just as rigorously as young men did. …show more content…
Assuming all are capable of shucking their female forms and adapting to a masculine life to become one sex. In her time women were supposedly made from man, thus, Cavendish concludes to be equal women must simply rejoin him and become one again. Cavendish juxtaposes women as both noble yet inferior "noble ladies, gentlewomen, and other inferior women," still seeing the female form as under educated and less than the man does. However, she is now noble in wishing to become similar to him (162). This idea is curious; as women are not the same as men and cannot always compete. Strengthening the body as well as the mind is a noble task and should be available to all. Cavendish in her fourth oration begins to see the path to equality but disregards the differences between the sexes that make them both …show more content…
Noticing that women have become to complacent with the roles men created for us. Their approaches on how to alter the situation for women begin to drift them apart as Astell values the knowledge women already have as women, the experience and guidance they posses. Moreover, Cavendish sees women as someone whom (at first) could still stand for some patching up. Later changing to show her she should never forget that she is noble and worthy of simply being a woman, taking pride in the favor nature has given her. Astell’s “A Religious Retirement” aggressively demands women to question if she is truly inferior simply because man has said so. She goes on the show that women are valuable just as women and if given the proper tools may accomplish great things in life just as men can. Cavendish begins by wanting women to become men. Change her lifestyle and adapt completely to the world he has created. She stops celebrating the beauty of women and the differences of the sexes only focusing on how they drag on the ground. Later Cavendish changes greatly and begins to praise women for their strength; still she reverts as she searches for common ground in her ideas. She knows that woman could still accomplish much more If they

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