The Female Thermometer by Terry Castle (Essay Sample)

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The Female Thermometer by Terry Castle
Introduction
The female thermometer is a collection of Terry Castle's essays about female identity in the eighteenth century. There are themes of travesty, fantasy, transgression, and sexual ambiguity in the book, which form a wide range of exploration of the raging issues about the culture in the eighteenth century in ender studies. Notably, the book mentioned above brings about the bizarre side of eighteen-century literature and culture. Castle used the idea of a female thermometer to show how satirists in the eighteen century used this female thermometer as an imaginary instrument to measure the female identity and their sexual desires (Castle, n.p). This paper will explore the events in Europe during the eighteenth century when Terry Castle wrote her book and what inspired her to use the contents in her book during that time.
The Age of Enlightenment
During the eighteenth century, Europe was characterized by a social, intellectual, and political ferment. The period was commonly known as the Age of Enlightenment, of the age of reason. It was named the Age of Enlightenment as it was during this time, innovative leaders implemented a lot of ideas of the previous years broadly. For instance, in academia, the new fields of calculus and mechanical developments started to be used by the people, which helped them in their works. Politically, the ideas of John Locke and Hobbes, among others, motivated the Europeans that one-day democracy would prevail and the prevalent monarchical structure would eventually end. The Europeans also believed that the intellectual ideas of the economy by Adam Smith would finally bring capitalism as a form of development. The Enlightenment thinkers during this era had many questions about the monarchical authority which was being used in Europe. Therefore, the Enlightenment thinkers embraced the idea that human well-being would improve by rational change one day. The Enlightenment era advocated ideas such as liberty, constitutional government, and religion due to the previous events the people in Europe experienced (Crocker, n.p). Most of the academic and scientific approaches that are available today were due to the Age of Enlightenment. This period was characterized by the long period where other countries felt European domination over the rest of the world.
Among the significant Enlightenment ideas in the eighteen century were the philosophical and scientific activities that changed the traditional setup of society in Europe. The intellectual movement led by Jean Rousseau believed that society was based on reason rather than the Catholic domain. In science, the leaders and the community's people thought it was based on observation and experiments. Science became evident and had the leading role in the Enlightenment period. Many scientific thinkers interrelated science enhancement with the end of religious and traditional authority where people gained freedom of thinking and speech. As a result, from a broader perspective, science encouraged empiricism and rational thinking, which resulted in progress and the advancement of people's ideas. The enlightenment period also was the foundation of the western political and intellectual culture. The west academic culture and politics yielded the liberal democracies in the community at large. Liberal democracy was characterized by equality of people, the right of the individuals, the distinction of the state and the civil society. In the religion sector, the century sought to settle the religious conflicts that were rampant in Europe. They ended the political power, which led to the religious wrangles, which eventually helped to prevent any arising wars against religion (Crocker, n.p). During this time, many enlightenment thinkers formulated many essays and novels which helped to bring light to the people of Europe, which led them to be involved in activities that sought positive changes only. In other words, the reading materials or novels and essays helped many people to gain social enlightenment, which was of great significance in their lives.
The eighteen century was also characterized by cut sentiment and sensibility. In literature, the rational impulse led to satire, argument, and some extended plain prose. Wit is evident in Terry Castle's book. She says that the satirists in the eighteenth period used the female thermometer to measure the female arousal in their sexuality. The cult of satire and argument was seen in England from the Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson writings which was a continuation of the tradition of Dryden in the seventeenth century. The novel was published in English literature, which included the rational realism and the psychological probing of the books by Samuel Richardson. Additionally, there was a lot of irrationalism in society, which inspired some writers such as Terry Castle to publish novels that explained the culture of the people in the eighteenth century.
Sexuality in the Eighteenth century
The book by Terry Castle contains information on how the culture of the people in the eighteen century was characterized by a constantly shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined which had a fantastic combination of events. The book provides excellent archival records of the people in the eighteen century and especially women and their intimate lives. Most women had some ironic way of expressing how they felt during their relationships with men. For instance, Claudine Grissonet expressed her love, saying that love illuminated her heart with a passion due to her relationship with Benoit. But she was locked up in a room when Benoit found her and violently forced her to have sex. Generally, sexuality during this time comprised how young people viewed intimacy, from spending time together to discussions of getting married and later engaging in sexual intercourse (Chaplin n.p). They associated sex with marriage; although men used force, it was not correct according to today's lives. Other men promised their women partners that they would marry them when they agreed to have sex with them. By the next half of the eighteenth century, there was the beginning of the sexual revolution, where the century developed new forms of secularization. Some sexual advancements were sexual freedom, a change of self-identity, which was essential for sexuality.
Masquerades in the eighteenth century
There was a travesty in the eighteenth century where Terry Castle mainly focused on masquerade, which was the common aspect of the shape-shifting impulse in that period. Terry Castle’s study of the masquerade thoroughly examines how the masquerade life was in the eighteenth century. In the book, Terry combines the main ideas that are at the center of the masquerade context. The eighteenth century in this context was characterized by a social phenomenon of vast proportions and a culture of potency. During this time, satirists and moralists viewed masquerade as a foolish and irrational event or activity that irresponsible people of fashion practiced. Terry points out that masked assemblies were part of the culture in the eighteenth century (Castle, n.p). Getting to know more about masquerade in the eighteen century, many people saw it as an imaginary ancient period characterized by immorality. People's thoughts of masquerade being an immoral activity are because people were dressed differently where men were dressed as women and women were dressed as men.
Additionally, other typical attires such as clothes resembled those of the devil and even wild animals. In the eighteenth century, the idea was initiated for ball-goers where people wore full masks that completely hid their true identities. Masquerade is the place where people coul