Philosophical Ladies vs. Belles in 18th-Century Literature
Throughout the history of literature, women and women’s writing have always been put to the test. Undoubtedly, natural behavior has always been a mystery for many people, and we could find several tests to prove it. This essay aims to explain the contrast between the so-called philosophical lady and the belle in 18th-century literature.
The Rise of Women Writers in the 18th Century
Firstly, it is important to understand the conditions in which women were writing. During the eighteenth century, female authors became increasingly numerous and industrious. Women emerged as professional writers and journalists, able to earn their living through the sale of their writings. To do this, they practiced all the methods available to men: private patronage, subscription publication, journalism, and the sale of their books to libraries and the general reading public. As authors, they became increasingly numerous and prolific. As readers, they also, for the first time, multiplied in numbers so vastly as to become a significant sector of the reading public who, with newly afforded leisure, became omnivorously literate.
Satire and the Portrayal of Belles
Equally important is to comprehend that 18th-century literature became very satirical and critical of manners and behaviors. This is the time when literature became moralistic, and Alexander Pope, one of the members of the Scriblerus Club, is one exponent of this critical writing. The Rape of the Lock meant a harsh criticism of women, especially on one type: the belles. While Pope pokes fun at the superficial character of aristocratic society, he seems to particularly focus on the rituals of womanhood and is highly condescending towards women. Belinda, the female protagonist, is a coquette or a belle, a frivolous young lady. Pope states that belles spent much of their day preparing themselves for social functions. Beauty becomes very important, as do appearances—both physical and social. The virtue of beauty in this poem cannot be overstated. Pope writes, “If to her share some female errors fall, / Look on her face, and you’ll forget ’em all” (2.17-8). The beautiful woman Belinda is seen as more virtuous than others simply because of her physical features. Showing social grace and charm is more important for women than anything intellectual they could say.
Margaret Cavendish: A Philosophical Lady
Another instance in which we can see the work of a philosophical lady is Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World. Margaret Cavendish’s preface for this work makes a bold claim for authorial self-sufficiency, equating her creation of and rule over her textual world with the conquering and ruling of empires by Caesar and Alexander. She emphasizes the satisfactions of authorship. Indeed, in the preface, she accounts herself “a happy creatress” (Cavendish, 1656). She is attributing a term, she is doing the same her male colleagues can do, and she is imposing her figure as a philosophical lady, who indeed was a philosopher.
Mary Astell: Advocate for Women’s Education
In addition, Mary Astell was also a philosophical lady. She was really educated; she thought education was the only door for women’s freedom. Her essay Some Reflections upon Marriage is an illustration of this. When it says: “But some sage persons may object, that were women allowed to improve themselves and not, amongst other discouragements, driven back by the wise jests and scoffs that are put upon a woman of sense or learning, a philosophical lady, as she is called by way of ridicule, they would be too wise, and too good for the men” (Astell, 2287). She is claiming that fair circumstances would provide women education and thus that would “stir them up to what they ought” (Astell, 2287), and that education would prove them women of sense too. Essentially, she is advocating for education as a tool to build intellectual women so that they can avoid the thought that their only value is that of servitude in marriage.
Conclusion: Contrasting Ideals of Womanhood
All in all, the contrast between the belles and the philosophical ladies can be appreciated in the sum of the works commented on in this essay. While the description of the belles is based on women whose main concern is essentially beauty and vanities, philosophical ladies dedicate themselves to intellectual labor.