The answer would be focal point. It is like the main place or point of her life in this sentence.
Because this story took place in a time where women and men weren't equal. So people would often identify women using their husbands last name.
Opinions are subjective, as they can vary from person to person but facts are objective.
Pejorative means to make worse.
The skepticism is characterized by an atittude of doubting, questioning and/or not believing something or someone.
As we can see in “Of Cannibals”, Montaigned used skepticism to justify his arguments on his opinion about clever people. For instance:
1) “They never show you things as they are” – The author also said that clever people “cannot help altering history a little”, and then he says that they never show things as they really are; meaning that since he believes that clever people tend to change facts and information, the consequence of it is that their speech isn’t 100% honest. Therefore, he is skeptical when it comes to the true nature of those facts.
2) (...) And to give credence to their judgement and attract you to it, they are prone to add something to the matter, to strecht it out or amplify it” – Now the author claims that clever people try to convince others by adding details or facts to what actually happened. He believes that once the fact is amplified, it gets more attention and credit. In this case, he is being skeptical in regards to judgements and opinions, suggesting that clever people aren’t really honest in their judgements as they want others to “buy their ideas” and because of it they will tell things in a way that will persuade people to do what they want and believe what they say.
