William Cavendish and Margaret Lucas's Marriage

    Margaret Lucas and William Cavendish's marriage is extremely progressive and healthy despite the environment and societal views of their time. The progressive standard of their marriage is set at the beginning of their relationship when William falls in love with Margaret for her mind and body.  William is interested in marrying Margaret because of her thoughts and ideas and finds her to be an equal with whom he can share his mind. During the 17th century in Western Europe, the idea of marrying a woman for her mind was not heard of. At this time the upper class married for social status and money, so it was a huge surprise to the court that William who "existed in a social sphere far above [her] own" (Dutton 30) was interested in Margaret. The court was also surprised that he was interested in Margaret because she was such an oddity to them due to her masculine hobby of writing. Through this context, we can see how the start of their relationship was different from the norms of the time.

 William upheld this standard throughout his marriage by continuing to encourage and support Margaret in her writing and ideas. When Margaret writes her first book she is afraid of how her husband will react to her having it published and printed. However, William surprises Margaret by being “astonished” and “proud” (68) of her and her work. William’s support for Margaret helps her brave the criticism she faces as a women writer in a male-run society.  Margaret faced backlash of all kinds due to her book, many of which were rooted in sexism and disgust of the female perspective. It is through this struggle and backlash throughout the book that we are able to see how strongly William supports and loves Margaret and how he is not insulted by her success. In their relationship we see William and Margaret operating as equals intellectually even if she does not have equal rights in their society. The book does an astonishing job of portraying Margaret as a modern woman through her work and her relationship with her husband. It makes the reader recognize how society forces women into silence and allows readers to wonder how many other women through history were unable to share their ideas with the world because of their gender and their husband’s restrictions.