One of Mary Astell’s most influential and famous works was Some Reflections upon Marriage. In this work she makes several arguments about marriage, its values, and its purposes. This was very on brand for Astell, as a lot of her works centered around feminism and religion. Through her philosophical works, Astell was able to make several political statements as well, and gave a new perspective to early feminism (Broad).
Mary Astell started working on this piece as a response to the scanedelously absusive marriage of Hortense Mancini and the duke of Meilleraye. Although Astell holds marriage as a blessed union, she points out that it has strayed far from that original purpose. This work is her way of analyzing how marriage fell from a blessed state, and what can be done about it (Broad).
Astell states that for a woman to marry, she is putting herself “entirely into her husband’s power, and if the matrimonial yoke be grievous, neither nor custom affords her that redress which a man obtains” (Some Reflections, 27). Of course, when this work was released in 1700 (anonymously), women were not afforded nearly the same amount of freedoms that men were granted. Astell knew this, and hoped to enlighten women of the precautions they should take before committing themselves in marriage to a man who would have autonomy over them. She advises women to avoid marriage all together if possible, but if they must marry they should fully educate themselves first. This education will help them to fully understand the committment they are making, and the nature of the man they are to marry, to ensure that he will treat her as an equal. She belived marriage to be a permanent union – made before the eyes of God – and never advocated that divorce was a possibility for escape from an unhealthy marriage (Broad).
Astell analyzes what could have caused marriage to fall from its blessed state through this work. She claims that the main reason for the decay in the quality of marriage can be attributed to the moral failings of men (Some Reflections). She says that men tend to have poor intentions when committing to marriage with a woman – namely lust, greed, and other improper motives. If marriage were to still be based around benevolence and reason, instead of “brutish passions” that it would still be the blessed institution that it originally was (Broad).
She also dives into the submission that is expected of women when they enter into marriage. Women are expected to blindly offer their submission onto their husbands – even when these men have not earned a woman’s obedience (Broad). She claims that a woman’s soul will be destroyed if she is in an unhappy marriage to a vicious man. The education she recommended all women get before entering into a marriage agreement will help them to shape their own opinions, values, and virtues before committing themselves to submission in a marriage to a man they do not fully know (Some Reflections). Some researchers also propose that there is an even deeper political message hidden in Some Reflections upon Marriage. She begs the question “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” (Some Reflections, 18). Throughout some of her other, more political works, she argues against Whig theorists and their lack of submission to political authority. They expect full submission in the family unit from their wives and children, yet do not submit to the political authorities that they have placed in power themselves (Broad).
Mary Astell’s philosophy of religion is tightly intertwined with her views upon marriage and feminism. She was a practicing Christian, and truly believed that God always does what is good and just; that God is the ultimate perfection. She states that women should ensure that they live their lives in accordance with the plan that God has set in place for them (Broad).
Throughout her works, she gives three separate arguments for the existence of God. The first of which is shown in the second Proposal she writes, and is an otological argument. She claims God to be infinitely perfect, followed by questioning whether an infinitely perfect being can exist. She uses her intuition to make the argument that God exists by saying that the the idea of God and the idea of existence correlate with each other. Her second argument for God’s existence is a cosmological argument based on the idea that humans are contingent beings. A contingent being is not able to give itself the state of being that it has, it needs to be given the ability to exist by a non-contingent being. This non-contingent being must be God, as something cannot come from nothing (A Serious Proposal). In her final argument for the existence of God, shown in Bart’lemy Fair and uses empirical evidence and observations to show that God must exist. She states that a cause is required to have qualities that are the same as or better than those in its effect. She uses the fact that there is a gravitational attraction between physical objects and bodies in the world as evidence to further this argument (Bart’lemy Fair).
To conclude, Mary Astell’s most influential and popular arguments are centered around beliefs on religion, marriage, and feminism. She argues that God must exist, and furthers that argument through several different approaches. Mary believed that God was truly and infinitely perfect. She also argued that marriage was intended to be a holy and blessed union before the eyes of God, unfortunately it has fallen from that state, and has become less virtuous. She argues for the sake of women, to educate themselves fully on their values, and the values of the man they are to marry before they commit themselves to him in holy matrimony (Broad).
Word Count: 969
Glossary:
- Bart’lemy – small village in Ireland
- Yoke – used biblically as a metaphor for submission and servitude