5 Short Stories

Throughout history, women have had many different experiences with strict rules set by society that limit their capabilities. In the stories, Medea, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “The Best Man Wins,” and “To Helene,” all give different perspectives of gender roles, from times as early as four hundred and eighty-five B.C to the twenty-first century. Both men and women are not seen as equals and have different rights in their society during these times. However, each of these stories represent how women have certain expectations that they must follow in order for society to accept them.

Throughout the play Medea, it is obvious that women are gaining higher standards that they must adhere by in order for society to want them. When Medea must accept how Jason leaves her for another woman, Jason as the man, believes that he has every right to leave his wife so that he can become more prominent in society. However, Medea does not have a choice but accept it due to the fact that it is her duty to serve as a loyal and loving wife to Jason.

This is very common in this society at this time and the women must be accepting of it. The Chorus tells Medea that she needs to get over Jason because she is spending too much of her precious time grieving over something that is negligible, “Suppose your man gives honor to another woman’s bed. It often happens. Don’t be hurt.

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” (Euripides 6). A fair assumption to make, would be that Jason thought that Medea would understand why he left her for a new bride due to how women are supposed to act in society.

Furthermore, the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is undeniable proof that women are held to inexplicable standards. The narrator in this story has a mental illness and instead of receiving the proper care, she is sent away to a secretive building that is not on the public’s radar. The narrator is not acting how a woman is required to behave during this time and that causes the people close to her to be embarrassed. In this era, having a mental illness was a burden among the families and was not approved by the rest of society. The humiliation that this mental illness has caused creates tension and her family does not want the dead weight anymore, “If a physician of high standing, … assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression… what is one to do?” (Gilman 1). People close to her are ashamed to be around a person with “temporary nervous depression” and would like to keep their high rank in society ongoing.

Along with that, the story “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a prime example of how women are expected to behave and imitate the unreasonably high standards set for them. The knight is forced to marry a woman who is not a noble birth, older, poor, and not the greatest looking even though she had given him advice. However, the knight opposes to marrying this woman because she is not seen as beautiful or powerful in the public’s view, although she is very generous and helpful. The knight only wants to marry the best of the best, that’s why he “… married her in private on the morrow and all day stayed hidden like an owl, it was such torture that his wife looked foul.” (Chaucer 780). This woman was not viewed as eligible for the knight and the knight agrees. The woman was not meeting the required expectations for the knight to marry her because she was below average according to society’s standards.

Continuing on, the story “Best Man Wins” exhibits how women are expected to stay loyal and commit to their husbands due to the fact that society already assumes that they will. When Carolyn admits to having an affair it is no surprise that Edward thought that she was not in the blame because Carolyn must stay faithful to her husband and cheating on him would be going against society’s social norms of this. Edward does not believe that Carolyn did anything wrong and she was getting coaxed by Vachon into the affair, that’s why he is giving her “… [a] choice, … what will it be?” (Waterman 5). Without this second chance, Carolyn would be an outcast and people would see that she is not a devoted wife and would not always be there for her husband.

Adding on, the sonnet “To Hélène” is a representation of the fact that women need to accept the first opportunity of love that may find a way to them because of how society forced them to. Most men during this time, have never felt rejection due to the fact that women are assumed to take their hand in marriage at first sight. By doing this, the man was hurt and knew what a mistake she had made, “ You’ll sing my songs and marvel that you were such a fool…” (Ronsard 809). Without Helene doing what was presumed of her, this man is now in sorrow and assumes that the woman will be stuck inside doing chores and gossiping all day.

In the end, women’s expectations had high set standards that society always held to them so that they would be accepted. Women had to suffer through heartbreak, humiliation, ridicule, unwanted loyalty, and unasked marriage because that is what society’s norms required women to go through so that others would welcome them. All of these stories, represent how most women had to live their lives with such incredibly high expectations that they need to adhere by or else they would be a reject from society.