I am such a fan! Even in the writings of women, we have not seen such a proponent for equality as we have with this text. Essentially, she says that women should be free to study anything that it "concerns them to know" (50... Sorry.. My actual text is in my car and it's far too cold outside to go out and get it. Any page citations refer to the original text, an online copy of which can be found here: https://archive.org/stream/seriousproposalt00aste#page/n6/mode/1up )
Women: "How can you be content to be in the World like Tulips in a Garden, to make a fine show and be good for nothing." (9) She admonishes the notion that women should be pretty and eloquent and let the men do all of the Making of the world, suggesting rather that the Women make as much of themselves as they choose and create a name for themselves that will outlast their earthly lives and transcend into History.
I always enjoy the grand style that we see in work of this time period. Every word that Astell writes is dripping with enthusiasm, like every syllable is a chance to persuade and to rally the forces of Women to her cause. And so she should!
I'm also interested in Astell's enthusiasm and words designed to move to action, particularly in the introduction. At least part of her goal is to attract people to invest in the creation of a women's college (Bizzell and Herzberg 843). While Astell uses admonishment in her introduction, she insures that she also scatters in a great deal of flattery. Just one example of these many flattering segments appears when she writes that "I suppose then that you're fill'd with a laudable Ambition to brighten and enlarge your Souls, that the Beauty of your Bodies is but a secondary care" (Astell 849 1.1). In essence, she's following her own advice that she gives later by suggesting we "permit 'em to fancy if they please, that we believe them as Wise and Good as we endeavor to make them. By this we gain their Affections which is the hardest part of our Work, excite their Industry and infuse a new Life into all Generous Tempers" (Astell 854 5.1). It's obvious that Astell has a clear aim and a clear rhetorical strategy that she employs to achieve it, and it's interesting to see her using her own advice from the body of her work as part of this strategy.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of her support for women and their right to education, however, I notice that Astell still either has reservations about how far women should be allowed to enter into the public world or at least pretends to. She writes that "Women have no business with the Pulpit, the Bar or St. Stephens Chapel; And Nature does for the most part furnish 'em with such a Musical Tone, Perswasive Air and winning Address as renders their Discourse sufficiently agreeable in Private Conversation" (Astell 856 5.1). Astell is still holding women away from public speaking venues, even as she encourages them to engage in education and conversation. I have the sense that she's being sincere, but I suppose it's possible, as some people have suggested in class in connection to other female writers, that she's merely setting limits to avoid being disregarded as a radical. Either way, it seems we're now reading texts from an era that allows more from women but in which they are still very much limited.