Female Resistance to Male Authority, Part Two
Female Code of Conduct in the Court Life of France
The Heptameron is a collection of seventy stories told by
five men and five women, including discussion of the stories.
Taken together, these tales depict the lives of women in
sixteenth-century France. Like their Eastern counterparts, women
were expected to be governed by the men in their lives, either
husband or father. The dominant attitude is that "women are made
solely for [men's] benefit" (Navarre 119). The men assert that
"it becomes [women] so well to be soft and gentle" in their
relationships with men (Navarre 187). A lady who withholds her
love and favors from a man is deemed 'cruel.' One of the
storytellers compares this withholding of love to starvation
from lack of food:
Saffredent: Nevertheless, if a lady refuses to give bread to
some poor wretch dying of hunger, then she is regarded as a
murderess.
Oisille: If your requests were as reasonable as those of the
poor begging bread in their hour of need, then a lady would
indeed be extremely cruel to refuse them. But the malady you are
talking of only kills those, thank God, who would die anyway
within the year!
Saffredent: Madame, I cannot think that a man can have any
greater need than that which makes him forget all other needs.
Indeed, when love is truly great, a lover knows no other bread,
knows no other meat, than a glance, a word from his beloved.
(Navarre 426)
Like Genji, the men in The Heptameron employ the
rhetoric of lovesickness in attempts to gain favors from women.
If a woman doesn't love a man who purports to love her, she is
accused of inflicting "diabolical torture" that is more painful
than "all the torments in Hell" (Navarre 283). Also like Genji,
sixteenth-century French men believed their "honour ruined" if
they failed in their conquests (Navarre 97). Therefore when a
man is faced with a woman who is "too sensible and good to be
tricked" and "too well-behaved to be won around by presents and
talk," he is "justified" in taking her "by force" (Navarre 219).
The double standard prevalent in sixteenth-century France was
promoted by women as being the proper conduct for women.
Parlamente (the character who is thought to be Marguerite de
Navarre) asserts that:
Women who are dominated by pleasure have no right to call
themselves women. They might as well call themselves men, since
it is men who regard violence and lust as something honourable.
When a man kills an enemy in revenge because he has been crossed
by him, his friends think he's all the more gallant. It's the
same thing when a man, not content with his wife, loves a dozen
other women as well. But the honour of women has a different
foundation: for them the basis of honour is gentleness, patience
and chastity. (Navarre 397)
It's interesting to note some of the male storytellers refuse to
believe "the hearts of men and women [are] any different"
(Navarre 254). Since women desire the same things as men, i.e.
love and passion, a man is able to destroy "the fortress of the
heart where Honour dwells" if he only perseveres long enough to
persuade the lady to give "herself up to that which she had
never wished to resist" in the first place (Navarre 214).
The male storytellers and the male characters have difficulty
believing a woman whom they desire might not desire them also.
They ascribe female reluctance to their sense of modesty, not
faithfulness to their husbands if she is married or chastity if
she is not married. While social standards of female conduct in
sixteenth-century France are very similar to those of
tenth-century Japan, the female storytellers and women depicted
in the stories possess an important difference from their
Eastern counterparts: They are more assertive in resisting male
dominance, particularly in controlling their own sexuality.
Female Resistance to French Code of Conduct
Although some of the male storytellers advocate rape if the
woman refuses all sexual advances, in the majority of the
stories told in The Heptameron rape and attempted rape
rarely go unpunished, unlike The Tale of Genji. In Story
Five after the ferrywoman escapes the two friars' attempted
rape, she rounds up a mob from her village to return to the
islands and seize the two friars (Navarre 99). All the villagers
were "anxious to join in the hunt and have his share of the fun"
(Navarre 99). The two friars were tied up and paraded through
the village streets "to the shouts and jeers of every man and
woman in the place" (Navarre 99).
Some women in the stories are threatened into submission, like
the nun in Story Seventy-two who "dare[s] not resist" the monk
whom she considers "the most pious man in the place" (Navarre
540). However, the majority of the women actively resist
unwanted advances. Unlike the women in The Tale of Genji,
most of the female characters will physically fight with their
male oppressors. In Story Four, the Princess fends off her
attacker by biting and scratching his face horribly (Navarre
92). Also in Story Forty-Six, a wife of a judge kicks a friar
down the attic stairs when he refuses to heed her warning not to
follow her into the attic (Navarre 406). These are only two of
the many instances when women will physically engage in fights
with men; in this regard, they are very different from the women
in tenth-century Japan.
The women agree it is "reasonable" that husbands should govern
their wives but stipulate that husbands should not "abandon them
nor treat [them] badly" (Navarre 361). The majority of the wives
who are treated badly resist their husbands' ill behavior in
some manner. Some women try to change their husbands' behavior,
and others seek out means to avenge themselves.
In Story Thirty-seven, a wife embarks upon a campaign to win
back her husband's love after he begins cheating on her. When he
returns to his wife in the morning, she gives him a bowl of
water to wash his hands, saying it is "only decent to wash one's
hands when one had been somewhere foul and dirty" (Navarre 359).
She hopes to induce her husband to "acknowledge and abhor his
wicked ways" (Navarre 359). This ritual continues for a year,
but the husband's behavior does not change. The wife then
decides more drastic measures are needed; she hunts all over the
house until she discovers her husband in a bed with "the
ugliest, dirtiest, and foulest chambermaid in the house"
(Navarre 359). She sets fire to straw in the room and when the
husband fails to wake, the wife shakes him awake. She tells him
if he does not change his ways, she doesn't know if she "shall
have it in [her] power a second time to save [him] from danger"
(Navarre 359). Her husband promises "never again to give her
cause to suffer on his account" (Navarre 359).
Other wives in the stories attempt to shame their husbands for
their philandering by conspiring with the women their husbands
have been pursuing. In Story Eight and Story Fifty-Nine, wives
instruct the chambermaids to set up a rendezvous with the
husbands. In the first, the wife takes the place of the
chambermaid (Navarre 109), and in the second the wife arrives at
the rendezvous and catches the husband in the act of seducing
the servant (Navarre 467). These two examples reflect a growing
resistance to the double standard of sexual conduct. No such
resistance to this double standard is seen in The Tale of
Genji. In the court of Japan, it is a given that men will
have more than one wife and/or concubines.
In the circumstance of cheating husbands, some women decide to
avenge themselves by taking lovers also. The wife in Story
Fifteen tried "everything in her power to win [her husband]
around," but he refused to give up his illicit affairs (Navarre
190). The lady became depressed, and earned the pity of a noble
lord who attempts to console her. The King puts this friendship
to an end, but she soon discovers another man willing to be her
lover. Her husband, finally realizing his wife's beauty and
desirability, begins to pay more attention to her; but it is too
little, too late. By this time, the wife has "a desire to pay
him back for the sorrows that his lack of love had brought her
in the past" (Navarre 192).
French women also attempted to seclude themselves from men who
had dishonorable designs upon them. In Story Forty-two, a
townswoman is pursued by a young prince who believes she would
be an easy conquest. The prince sends a messenger to declare his
intentions, but the young woman feigns disbelief and insists the
messenger must have made it all up without his master's
knowledge (Navarre 382). The prince begins to court her by
letters, but she refuses to answer. She also avoids attending
events in which she might see him. When he arranges a ploy to
gain access to her house, he pleads with her to "give [him her]
love in return," admonishing her for her "spite" in continuing
to refuse him (Navarre 384). However she says she "would rather
die" than do anything that would damage her virtue (Navarre
384). She continues to remain chaste, earning the enduring
respect of the prince who arranges an honorable marriage for
her.
In The Heptameron, one can discern rising levels of
consciousness that women should be allowed to choose their own
husbands. One example of this resistance to others determining a
woman's marital state occurs in Story Forty. In this story, the
Comte de Jossebelin refuses to let any man marry his sister. She
and a young man who lives in the household fall in love and are
secretly married (Navarre 368). Even though the sister is old
enough to marry whom she wants and is legally allowed to do so,
her brother has the man killed when he becomes knowledgeable of
the marriage. The Comte, wary that his sister might "seek
revenge or would appeal to the law" has a castle built in the
middle of the forest in which he locks her away "forbidding
anyone to speak with her" (Navarre 370). After a time, he
attempts to "regain her confidence" and even insinuates he will
allow her to marry (Navarre 370). But his sister resists all
appeasement and, in effect, places a curse upon her brother for
his evil actions with the result that he and his six sons "all
die[ ] miserably" (Navarre 370). Although the common social
custom is still that women should seek guidance and permission
in their choice of husbands, there is a growing attitude that
women should marry for love and not as a matter of convenience
or financial gain.
In The Heptameron, there are many women who resist the
customary sexual norms imposed upon them. The majority of these
women though usually experience punishment for their
transgressions; one of the few exceptions to this occurs in
Story Forty-Nine, which also depicts the extremity of female
promiscuity. A foreign Count and Countess are visiting the court
of King Charles, when the King becomes enamoured of the Countess
(Navarre 417). King Charles sends her husband away on business
so he can have the Countess "to himself" (Navarre 417). But the
wayward Countess is not content with the King only; she
'imprisons' a succession of men in her dressing room for a week
at a time, installing another one whenever she releases the one
currently hiding there (Navarre 418).
Each of the men knew that the others desired the Countess, but
they each believed that he was the only one to "have his wishes
granted" and each man "secretly laughed at the others for having
failed to win such a prize" (Navarre 418). Eventually however
the six men who were the Countess' captives could no longer keep
from bragging about their sexual conquests, and so they all
learned what the Countess had been doing (Navarre 419). They
decide to punish her by accosting the Countess on her way to
Mass, all dressed in black and wearing an iron chain around
their necks to signify their 'slave' status (Navarre 420).
The Countess realizes she has been found out, but she refuses to
let the men succeed to humiliate her; she does not "become angry
or change her behaviour in any way" (Navarre 421). The six
prisoners of the Countess "were so abashed at this that the
shame they had desired to bring down on her fell upon them and
remained in their hearts" (Navarre 421). The Countess' evenness
of temper conveys to the men the idea her behavior is no more
shameful than their own had been. While the female storytellers
condemn the Countess' actions harshly while not commenting on
the men's behavior, this story and many others exhibits an
increasing hostility towards the double standard of male and
female sexuality.
If one compares male attitudes towards women in The Tale of
Genji and The Heptameron, one will see little
difference regarding their views of female inferiority and
subjectivity to males. The primary difference exists in how the
females themselves comprehend their roles in society. Women in
tenth-century Japan are taught to be completely docile and
submissive to the male figures in their lives. The only
resistance they exert is of the passive kind, i.e. with
admonitions, feigning illness, and concealing themselves as much
as possible from men. In contrast, the women of
sixteenth-century France are much more assertive in defending
themselves from physical abuses and ill treatment from men.
However the prevailing attitude is still that women should be
submissive to their fathers, brothers, and husbands as long as
those men do not treat them badly. A woman is only justified in
opposing male authority if she is not treated with the kindness
and consideration that is due to her.
Bibliography
Navarre, Marguerite de. The Heptameron. Trans. P.A.
Chilton. London: Penguin Books, 1984.
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Edward G.
Seidensticker. New York: Random House, 1990.