Summary
As the narrative continues, the Empress meets the immaterial spirits, which are disembodied entities that serve as the Blazing World's most advanced philosophers. They can travel anywhere and absorb information instantly.
The Empress is intent on writing a philosophical treatise about God and the natural world, called a Cabbala, and enlists the immaterial spirits for help explaining the nature of creation to her. The spirits tell her that the world is composed of matter that moves and changes independently. Notably, when the Empress inquires about original sin, the immaterial spirits disappear completely.
After reconnecting with the spirits, the Empress asks if they can help her find a scribe to write the content of her Cabbala for her.
The immaterial spirits connect the Empress with the Duchess of Newcastle, who is to be her scribe. The women become quick and close friends, visiting one another's worlds through the power of the immaterial spirits.
During a visit to the Duchess's world, the Empress sees a London theater, learns about the English monarchy, and meets the Duchess's husband, the Duke of Newcastle.
The Duke of Newcastle is plagued by misfortune, having lost the majority of his estate in the English Civil Wars. While the Duchess asks Fortune to intervene for her husband, who is kind, wise, and honest, she eventually accepts that Fortune cannot be altered.
After her visit to the Duchess's world, the Empress realizes that she has created conflict among the species in the Blazing World with the implementation of her new religion. She resolves to return to the old ways of governance.
Analysis
As Part One continues, the novel enters arguably its most unique phase, in which the Empress uses the power of the immaterial spirits to commune with her friend, the Duchess of Newcastle (Cavendish's semi-fictional counterpart).
The relationship between the two women is platonic, a term that derives from the work of the Greek philosopher Plato. Platonic love is that which lacks any sexual or romantic valence but which is still more than casual affection; it is often described as the phenomenon of recognizing likeness between oneself and another and feeling as though the qualities of one person "complete" the other.
The relationship between the Empress and the Duchess is one such relationship, as they travel freely to one another's worlds and essentially live one another's lives through the power of the immaterial spirits, which render the obstacles of time and space negligible. This mingling of souls is precisely the model presented by Plato in his meditations on love, and it suggests that the bond between the Empress and the Duchess is itself a transcendent phenomenon of companionship, affection, and sameness.
This platonic love is inherently compared to the romantic love that exists between the Duchess and her husband, the Duke of Newcastle. It is important to note that the novel does not privilege one type of love over the other; rather, it draws more connections than contrasts between the two types of relationships than one might anticipate.
The Duchess's relationship with her husband is one of radical mutuality, mirroring the alleged relationship between Cavendish and her husband in real life. The Duchess and her husband are unconditionally supportive of one another, despite having experienced misfortune in the form of losing their estate (another nod toward the real-life misfortunes of the Cavendishes during the English Civil War). This is perhaps the moment in The Blazing World that most blurs the line between fiction and reality, as Cavendish includes her husband in the cast of characters as well as herself. By toying with this boundary between what is real and what is imagined, Cavendish suggests that the novel is not to be read as a work of fantasy but instead as a serious contribution to philosophy, politics, and English society.
