Previous
Quotes
The Empress
The book’s protagonist is a young noblewoman who gets abducted by a traveling merchant and accidentally finds herself stranded in the Blazing World. She then meets the Emperor, who believes that she is…
read analysis of The Empress
The Emperor
The beloved Emperor of the Blazing World lives in the infinitely rich city of Paradise and rules firmly but generously, maintaining peace and unity throughout the entire land. When he first meets the Lady…
read analysis of The Emperor
The Duchess
The Duchess, a fictionalized version of the author Margaret Cavendish, becomes the Empress’s trusted advisor, confidant, and Platonic friend in the second half of The Blazing World. The immaterial spirits identify the…
read analysis of The Duchess
Margaret Cavendish
The author of The Blazing World is the Duchess’s real-life counterpart and the wife of the real-life Duke William Newcastle. In the book’s prefatory note and epilogue, Cavendish directly addresses the reader to…
read analysis of Margaret Cavendish
The Duke of Newcastle
The Duchess’s husband, a lightly-fictionalized version of Margaret Cavendish’s real husband, is a wealthy English landowner and Royalist who has lost most of his estate in the English Civil War. He is extremely…
read analysis of The Duke of Newcastle
Get the entire The Blazing World LitChart as a printable PDF.
The King of ESFI
The king of the Empress’s native country, “ESFI” (England, Scotland, France, and Ireland), is suffering a terrible defeat in a global war at the beginning of the second half of the book. However, the…
read analysis of The King of ESFI
The Bear-Men
The bear-men are the first creatures that the Empress meets in the Blazing World. They live in their planet’s snowy polar region, and while they look like massive bears, they walk upright and act…
read analysis of The Bear-Men
The Bird-Men
The bird-men, who look like large geese but walk and talk like humans, are the third species that the Empress meets in the Blazing World. Because they spend so much time navigating the skies…
read analysis of The Bird-Men
The Fish-Men
The fish-men are another of the Blazing World’s many hybrid races, and like the worm-men, they are natural philosophers by trade. The fish-men specialize in studying the ocean’s makeup, currents, and animal life…
read analysis of The Fish-Men
The Worm-Men
The worm-men are one of the many hybrid species in the Blazing World. They are natural philosophers, like the fish-men, and they specialize in studying animals, plants, and minerals on land. They teach…
read analysis of The Worm-Men
The Satyrs
The satyrs, one of the many hybrid species-groups who live in the Blazing World, are based on the part-man, part-horse (or part-goat) spirits of the same name from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. The…
read analysis of The Satyrs
The Immaterial Spirits
The spirits are a group of disembodied souls who visit the Empress to explain the nature of mind, body, God, and the universe to her. They also help with her Cabbala and introduce her to…
read analysis of The Immaterial Spirits
Fortune
The spirit of the virtue Fortune appears in the Blazing World to explain why she has long disfavored the Duchess’s husband, the Duke of Newcastle. Fortune accuses the Duke of scorning and mistreating…
read analysis of Fortune
Minor Characters
The Fox-Men
The fox-men are the second of the groups that the Empress meets upon arriving in the Blazing World. Like all the other hybrid races, the fox-men have animal-like bodies but walk and talk like humans. Fittingly, they are politicians in the Blazing World.
The Ape-Men
The ape-men are the Blazing World’s chemists. They present the Empress with shaky hypotheses about the origins of metals and the way a few basic elements make up all matter. They also tell her about a naturally-occurring substance that people can use to reverse aging.
The Green People
The green people are one of several peculiar hybrid groups who live in the Blazing World. They are ordinary humans, except that their skin is green.
The Giants
The giants are a race of enormous men who work as sophisticated architects (and occasional bodyguards) in the Blazing World. When the Empress decides to invade her native world, the giants design advanced golden ships that can sail underwater.
Honesty
The spirit of the virtue Honesty appears in the Blazing World alongside Prudence to plead the Duke’s case against Fortune. Honesty lists Fortune’s crimes against the Duke, but she speaks too boldly—upon hearing the naked truth, Fortune grows furious and disappears.
Prudence
The spirit of the virtue Prudence appears in the Blazing World with Honesty to plead the Duke’s case against Fortune. Prudence calmly tries to convince Fortune to abandon her feud with the Duke.
