Question

Ladies, gentlewomen, and other inferior women, but not less worthy, I have been industrious to assemble you together, and wish I were so fortunate, as to [persuade] you to make [frequent assembly], association, and combination amongst our sex, that we may unite in prudent counsels, to make ourselves as free, happy, and famous as men, whereas now we live and [die], as if we were produced from beasts, rather than from men; for men are happy, and we women are miserable, they possess all the ease, rest, pleasure, wealth, power, and fame, whereas women are restless with labour, easeless with pain, melancholy for want of pleasures, helpless for want of power, and [die] in oblivion, for want of fame; nevertheless, men are so unconscionable and cruel against us that they [endeavor to bar] us of all kinds of liberty, as not to suffer us freely to associate amongst our own sex, but would fain bury us in their houses or beds, as in a grave; the truth is, we live like bats or owls, labour like beasts, and die like worms. Source: Cavendish, Margaret. “Female Orations.” 1662. Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader. Ed. Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Mendelson. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000. 143. Google Books. Web. 24 June 2011. Which statement describes the author’s purpose in this excerpt best?
The speaker wants to be allowed to be buried in a nice grave rather than cast aside unceremoniously.
The speaker hates both men and women and wants to be left alone to live out her unhappy life.
The speaker wants her audience to revolt against the tyranny of men and refuse to cook, clean, and do laundry.
The speaker wants her audience to understand how unequal men and women are in their society.

Answer 1

Answer: D) The speaker wants her audience to understand how unequal men and women are in their society.

Explanation: In the given excerpt we can see a woman talking about all the differences between the treatment society gives to men an the one they give to women. She says that while the men have the right to have power, wealth, fame, rest and pleasure, women have to do their labours and doesn't have the chance to have fame or pleasure or power. With those statements the wants her audience to understand how unequal men and women are in their society.

Answer 2

The speaker wants her audience to understand how unequal men and women are in their society.