‘and never smiled after the day when she promised William Preston to be his wife.’
After the death of the mother shortly after giving birth to her and William Preston’s first child, the only other reference to women was that of Aunt Fanny. She takes the position of the mother within the household. I think that this, in itself, shows how women were portrayed and to some extent, are still portrayed. They are seen as the sex who must look after the children and the house, while the father goes to work.
In summary The Half Brothers very much shows women as the second sex. They are shown to be unable to cope with the demands of life without a husband. Without a man, women are in trouble. They will have no money to buy food and clothes for themselves and their children. In this story the woman had to marry a man she does not love just to be able to stay alive. This unhappiness in her life eventually drives her to her grave. In her place, her sister takes over the position of housewife. This position of looking after the children and the house was stereotypical of many women before the 1900’s and to some extent is still the case in modern life as well.
In The Stolen Bacillus by H.G. Wells, the wife of the bacteriologist is portrayed as being stupid. She is referred to as being the ‘second person’ in the household, with the husband the more dominant figure. Even the husband, who should listen to his wife, does not give her time to speak. In our first meeting with the wife, the Bacteriologist is trying to find out what he had done with his bottle of liquid that turned things blue. He asks his wife,
‘“Had I anything in my hand when I spoke to you, dear, just now?”
Pause.
“Nothing, dear, because I remember -”
“Blue ruin!” cried the Bacteriologist.’ From this, we can see that he does not take the time to listen to his wife; he instead cuts her off in mid sentence like he has no respect for her whatsoever. The husband does not wait for an answer and treats his wife like a servant.
After the Bacteriologist ran out of the house in his slippers, his wife remarked,
‘He has gone mad! … It is that horrid science of his.’ Here, she does not realize the importance of the situation. She does not understand what her husband is dealing with when she talks about science. She thinks that he is running in the streets in his slippers because he works with bacteria, when his job has no real effect on the way he thinks normally.
Another example of how she fails to realize the importance of the situation is when she says,
‘But running about London – in the height of the season, too – in his socks!’ She feels that appearance is the most important subject at the time. She cannot believe that he is running in the streets of London in his socks, in the summer. She totally overlooks the fact why he doing such a thing. The Bacteriologist wife does not know that the anarchist has run off with what he thought was a deadly substance. The wife wants her husband to dress properly incase anyone important sees him in the streets of London but to him, his appearance does not matter at all because he needs to catch the anarchist and retrieve his substance.
When the chase goes past the horse drivers, Old Tootles says,
‘She’s a-following him….Usually the other way about.’ I think that this shows how some women were portrayed in those times. Old Tootles could be saying that the husband would normally be chasing the wife around for one reason. This reason would most likely to be that he wants to be loving towards his wife and he would like to chase her around the bedroom.
Whilst the chase is passing the horse drivers, they cheer the three people. The story says,
‘She did not like it but felt she was doing her duty, and whirled on down Haverstock Hill.’ This shows that the wife was dim-witted. I say this because by chasing her husband with the clothes that she thought that he should be wearing, she thought that she was doing something important when really, all of the important happenings were going on in front of her. It says that she felt like she was doing a duty and so therefore she took pride in what she was doing. This seems silly because what she was doing was unimportant although she considered it to be very important.
Near the end of the story, after the Bacteriologist has stopped the anarchist; the author wrote,
‘Minnie felt absolutely convinced now that he was mad, and directed the cabman home on her own responsibility.’ In this extract, the wife thinks that her husband is mad when really, she is acting the stranger. She also sends the cabman away and by doing this, thinks that she is taking control of the situation and acting responsibly.
In the last paragraph, there is a conversation with the Bacteriologist and his wife. In this conversation the husband is sarcastic towards his wife. He says,
‘Put on my coat on this hot day! Why? Because we might meet Mrs. Jabber. My dear, Mrs. Jabber is not a draught. But why should I wear a coat on a hot day because of Mrs. - ? Oh! Very well.’ The husband knows that his wife is too worried about image and how her husband looks in the streets. He questions why he should wear a coat in the middle of summer, knowing that she will not be able to reply. He is also being sarcastic when he uses the name, Mrs. Jabber. He is referring to a lady who likes to gossip and says that she is not a draught and so he should not wear a coat. In this last paragraph he is patronizing his wife in a humorous way without her knowing it.
In summary, The Stolen Bacillus portrays women as being dim-witted and stupid. It shows women as not being able to understand the situations that they find themselves in and making the wrong things seem important. Women in this story are looked down upon and are not really respected. This is shown by how the husband is sarcastic towards his wife near the end.
In Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver, the portrayal of women can be seen just by looking at the title of the story. Tony Kytes is the man that all women want to marry. He goes behind these various women’s backs and has affairs with other women. This is what makes him the Arch-Deceiver. Women could therefore be portrayed as being a bit like toys that Tony Kytes can play with whenever he wants.
The first girl Tony meets is Unity Sallet. She asks for a lift to her house and Tony says yes. On the way there, Unity Sallet tells Tony about how they should be getting married together, not him and Milly. The fact that Unity Sallet has come to Tony and not the other way around, shows that the males were the more dominant sex. Unity Sallet also seems to be putting the questions to Tony, who is giving kind answers. This again shows that Unity Sallet has to start the conversation in order to get somewhere. It seems as if Tony does not really care and that he could have any women that he wanted and so he does not have to try to make conversation. When Tony sees that hat of his fiancée coming down the street, he asks Unity Sally to hide underneath the tarpaulin. This shows that Tony can control his women and make them do virtually anything. Tony says,
‘It will all be done in a minute. Do! And I will think over what we’ve said; and perhaps I shall put a loving question to you after all, instead of Milly.’ Tony is just telling Unity Sallet lies. He is just using her so that he does not get into trouble with Milly. He is making a fool of Unity Sallet in this passage. Milly asks for a ride herself, and Tony has no choice but to let her in. The two start to talk and with Unity Sallet behind him, Tony has to watch what he says. He then sees Hannah Jolliver who was the first woman he ever fell in love with. Tony then asks this own soon to be wife to hide in the front, under the empty sacks so that Hannah would not get jealous. Tony again uses his power of persuasion to make Milly go under the sacks. He calls her his, ‘coming wife.’ Hannah asks, like the others, to get a lift with Tony and he accepts. Whilst traveling with Hannah, he realizes that he likes Hannah the most out of the three and without thinking, he says, ‘My sweet Hannah.’ This obviously causes some commotion underneath the sacks. The whole situation is a bit farcical since all three women in his life are in one cart without knowing that any other one is there. The portrayal of women up to this point is that men can get women to do whatever they want them to do. Tony, for example, gets two of the women to hide in his cart after promising that he will marry them afterwards. It seems as if the women are desperate to get married to Tony and will do anything to get it done.
In the end, the women all find out about each other hiding in the wagon and are all upset at this. Tony then has to choose who to marry. He asks Hannah first, but her father turns him down. H then asks Unity Sallet but she does not want to be second choice. This leaves Milly, the girl who he was supposed to get married to originally. When asked the question, ‘You didn’t really mean what you said to them?’ Tony replied, ‘Not a word of it!’ This is obviously a lie as it was quite clear that he was serious about marrying Tony. This again, just helps to portray women as stupid. To summarize this short story, men can control women and make them do what ever they want. Women are portrayed as being little toys so Tony can build up a collection. They are also portrayed as being stupid because they believe every word that Tony Kytes says.
In conclusion, the portrayal of women in these three pre twentieth century stories are all negative towards tem. They are portrayed as being stupid, the second sex, inferior and are treated like play toys. I think that the view of women has changed dramatically over the years, but I still think that in some areas of society, women are still classed as the second sex.