Book: Some Reflections Upon Marriage

Introduction
Mary Astell's Some Reflections Upon Marriage (1700) offers a sharp, principled critique of the legal and social structures that trap women within unhappy or oppressive marriages. Writing as a moral and philosophical interlocutor, Astell addresses both the private sorrows and the public injustices that flow from a marital system that treats women as subordinate property rather than rational partners. Her essay combines ethical reasoning, religious appeal, and pointed social observation to press for greater dignity, education, and autonomy for women.

Main Argument
Astell contends that the conventional arrangement of marriage too often reduces women to dependence and vulnerability. She argues that law and custom confer sweeping authority on husbands while denying wives meaningful moral and intellectual agency, leaving many women exposed to ill-treatment and spiritual damage. Reason and conscience, Astell insists, require that women not resign their capacity for judgment; if marriage cannot be entered into as an equal partnership, remaining single may be preferable to a life of submission and degradation.

Marriage and Moral Danger
For Astell, marriage is not merely a private relationship but a moral condition with deep consequences for a woman's soul and social standing. She frames certain marriages as forms of tyranny, where the wife's will is consistently thwarted and her opportunities for virtue and improvement are stifled. The spiritual stakes sharpen her critique: a marriage that compels moral compromise or habitual obedience to vice threatens the eternal welfare of the person forced into it. Astell therefore urges serious reflection and moral courage when facing the prospect of marriage.

Case Study: Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine
Astell employs the celebrated example of the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine as a cautionary tale about how rank and luxury do not safeguard women from misery. She uses their unhappy union to illustrate several recurring problems: marriages contracted for worldly motives, a mismatch of temper and principle between spouses, and the social inability to redress private wrongs. The case underscores her claim that external advantages, title, wealth, or fashion, cannot substitute for mutual respect, shared aims, and the cultivation of reason in both partners.

Rhetorical Strategy and Tone
Astell blends sober philosophical argument with moral exhortation, addressing both women and the wider reading public. She appeals to scripture, natural law, and common sense to bolster her position, while employing rhetorical questions and vivid examples to unsettle complacent readers. Her tone varies from compassionate toward suffering women to stern toward those who defend the status quo, yet even her polemic aims to persuade through reasoned reflection rather than mere invective.

Education, Choice, and Reform
Central to Astell's remedy is education: she insists that women's minds be cultivated so they can judge for themselves and resist harmful dependency. Educated women, she believes, are better able to seek companions who will respect their reason and virtue, or to choose a life of single devotion without shame. While not laying out a full program of legal reform, Astell's emphasis on moral and intellectual empowerment implicitly challenges the legal strictures and social practices that deny women equal standing.

Legacy and Relevance
Astell's reflections helped shape early feminist discourse by insisting that women are rational moral agents entitled to autonomy and dignity. Her insistence on the moral perils of enforced subordination and her defense of female education resonated with later debates about marriage, legal rights, and social reform. The essay remains relevant as a stern reminder that respect, consent, and intellectual companionship are the truest foundations of marriage, and that social prestige cannot cure institutional injustice.