“Thus did he make her breeding his only business and employment”

Margaret Cavendish’s dramatic and prose romances feature strong women seeking both love and agency in turbulent worlds. The protagonists of “The Contract” and “Assaulted and Pursued Chastity,” ² like the heroines of many folktales, do not have mothers to guide them through the maturation process. However, both of these young women acquire male guardians who nurture and educate them in ways that prepare them for activities beyond the domestic ones. In selecting male figures as caregivers for her heroines, Cavendish not only questions gender roles, but also suggests that maternal behavior is not limited to women, that maternity is not what should define women, and that male mentorship could be beneficial to a woman’s education. Cavendish is also exposing the social and patriarchal restrictions on women’s roles in courtship and marriage, the financial component of arranged marriages, the rigidity of the class structure, and the hierarchical political and social system. She removes women from the domestic sphere (and from their mothers), demonstrating the results when men educate women.