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Allegory
Explanation and Analysis—Utopia and Paradise:
Throughout the story, the Blazing World acts as an allegory with multiple potential interpretations. One interpretation is that the Blazing World is an allegory for heaven and Cavendish’s ideal world. Given the nature of a utopia, the Blazing World is already an idealized world, but it is made further idealized when described as a religious paradise, pointing to a religious allegory. This is most evident when Cavendish writes that the name of the Blazing World’s capital is “Paradise”:
they went towards Paradise, which was the seat of the Emperor; and coming in sight of it, rejoiced very much; the Lady at first could perceive nothing but high rocks, which seemed to touch the skies.
This directly equates the Blazing World with the biblical ideal of “Paradise” as representing heaven. The city is surrounded by “high rocks” that “touch the skies,” as if touching heaven and divinity. This then could imply that the Emperor and Empress are the God-figures of the Blazing World. The choice to name this imperial center “Paradise” is a clear biblical reference.
Furthermore, evidence of the Blazing World as an allegory for heaven is made explicit when the Empress asks the immaterial spirits questions about religion and the nature of being in the Blazing World. The Empress asks where Paradise is and what happened to Adam and Eve. They respond that:
Paradise was not in the world she came from, but in that world she lived in at present, and that it was the very same place where she kept her court, and where her palace stood, in the midst of the imperial city.
According to this description from the immaterial spirits, the Blazing World is literally heaven. This allegory has important implications for Cavendish’s broader arguments. It reflects her religious beliefs and support of absolute, divine monarchy, for example: the seat of the Blazing World’s absolute monarchy is “Paradise,” which is heaven. While this allegory is not the only way to interpret the Blazing World, it does leave the possibility open to consider the Blazing World as heaven, and the Emperor as a God figure.
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