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Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World
Explanation and Analysis:
Characteristic of the utopia genre, Cavendish writes with an overall neutral tone and matter-of-fact narration, focused on relaying details of the Blazing World and its society instead of prioritizing emotional prose. This relates to the travel narrative aspect of the utopia genre: especially in the first section, the story is a travel narrative relating the Empress’s journey to the Blazing World and her experience understanding that world. The travel narrative style, developed as key to the utopia genre in Thomas Moore’s Utopia, for example, uses an objective, neutral tone to make the imagined new world appear more realistic. Cavendish’s neutral, descriptive tone contributes to the sense that the Empress and the Blazing World could be real.
In the first section in particular, the tone is scientific and matter-of-fact throughout the Empress’s dialogues with the various creatures in the Blazing World. For example, when describing the nature of the Blazing World and the meaning behind its name, Cavendish writes:
But they answered, that they could perceive in that world none other but blazing stars, and from thence it had the name that it was called the Blazing World; and these blazing stars, said they, were such solid, firm and shining bodies as the sun and moon, not of a globular, but of several sorts of figures, some had tails, and some other kinds of shapes.
This is a very scientific description of the Blazing World. Instead of heavily using imagery to describe the beauty of the Blazing World, Cavendish uses neutral, matter-of-fact descriptions. When describing the stars, for instance, she gives multiple scientific and precise details: they are not “globular,” and “some had tails, and some other kinds of shapes.” Rather than offering up a poetic description of this world's defining features, the bird-men outline the environment in rather straightforward, scientific terms.
In both the second section and in Cavendish’s concluding letter, the tone becomes more argumentative and confident as she asserts her political beliefs about absolute monarchy. In the concluding letter, Cavendish argues for the power of fictional worlds. Yet throughout these arguments, she maintains a matter-of-fact and scientific tone.
Related Themes:
