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Reception History

Mary Pix's writing was noted for having a Gothic writing style that contradicted normal practice of having the setting in the distant past. For instance, it is not set in the distant past like much of later Gothic fiction, but rather in the first half of the seventeenth century, a few decades back from its moment of publication. Within Mary Pix’s The Inhumane Cardinal a gothic literature piece has one of the most remarkable feature of her book, its critical engagement with the power of narrative. The setting of Pix’s novel on the Continent evokes all the overtones of religious extremism and moral laxness that Gothic readers will later encounter in the localities chosen by Walpole, Radcliffe, Lewis and others. Continuing in the realm of politics, Pix broke boundaries in her political stance and had many sympathetic arguments for the Whig party. Pix's Whig sympathies lead her to hint at the excessive power of both patriarchy and monarchy as well as at their recurrent failure to bring about the benefits they advertise. Mihoko Suzuki wrote, "Pix rather unambiguously signals her interest in legal and political issues through her choice of dedicatee, as well as in her challenge to the Salic law that comments on William’s rule, which resulted from Mary’s acquiescence to his refusal to accept the role of consort."

Another historical element for which Mary Pix was judged upon was her view on women specifically that of violent women within her plays. Margo Collins annotated, “In Ibrahim, Pix uses conventional stereotypes of feminine violence as rooted in sexuality and therefore unacceptable." Later Margo Collins ads, “on the other hand, a woman enacts violence against another character in order to restore stability to a disrupted social system. Although Pix sometimes depicts feminine violence as morally legitimate, she also subjects each of these violent women to violence at the end of the play." "To contrast Jacqueline Pearson would have it a failure on Pix's part to portray strong female characters; nor have it as an example of early feminist ideology." On separate occasions "Pix brings up sexual violence in the play Bellinda of The Innocent Mistress, where she taps into a long-standing tradition of antitheatrical rhetoric, suggesting that the British stage is not a safe space for virtuous women."

Above we have what people have solely thought of Mary Pix's writing style and much of the content in her play. In order to get a well-rounded sense of her reception as a whole, one must also look at how people perceived her as a person and her place as a “female Whit”. Here are several different opinions of Mary Pix compiled by Jean Marsden and a reflection of the female Whit’s. Lock wrote, “Ironically, Mary Pix, the "female wit" most successful as a playwright in her own time, is the figure most commonly overlooked or even maligned today. A middle-class merchant's wife lacking the more extensive education of Manley and Trotter, she has been labeled unoriginal and a "mental lightweight" by critics in the twentieth century." Pix is described by Jacqueline Pearson, for example, as "attempt[ing] to write in a gender-neutral way, but in fact this means assuming male viewpoints and stereotypes"; on the other hand, "Trotter and Manley have a more feminist vision" and thus they, unlike Pix, "succeed in producing sympathetic and vivid portraits of women." Derek Hughes, "claims that Pix, especially in her comedies, "distinguished herself as a slavish upholder of male authority." Yet this "mental lightweight" and "slavish" anti-feminist was a modest success in her own day, with at least two plays that were revived several times and a solid string of stageable plays to her credit." The discrepancy between Pix's success differ substantially from those of the late seventeenth century. Within the confounds of Jean Marsden article she expresses how both Manely and Trotter see Mary Pix. “Even The Female Wits grudgingly admits that Pix was a capable playwright. Discussing the Pix figure (Mrs. Wellfed) and her plays, Praiseall exclaims, "A Bouncing Dame! [referring to her girth] But she has done some things well enough." Marsden Final comment, “I suggest that the disparity between Pix's success in her own time and our late twentieth-century view of her lies in her ability to recognize and adjust to the changing demands of the literary marketplace.”