Three Good Women

This is spoken to quite clearly when Jeremy Goldberg stated that marriages "would be a business transaction in which the girl was merely chattel transferred from the patriarchal authority of her father to her husband " (Goldberg 26). These transactions, similar to those used for goods and services, is an indisputable example of the low regard and respect woman possessed in the medieval period. After the marriage, the woman had expectations of her to raise the children and please her husband in any way and at any costs, which can be viewed as the exact expectations of that of a servant or hired help. If she met these expectations, and most woman with very little examples to do otherwise, did, she gained a slither of respect for her obedience and was labeled a woman of goodness. .
             With that definition of a "good woman " in mind, when one looks at Noah's wife in "Noah's Flood ", one cannot help but observe her initial defiance and write her off as an opposition to the ideal woman. Similar to the biblical tale of the ark of Noah, God has, with much detail, instructed Noah to build an ark as a place of refuge for the animals and Noah's family as God plans to flood the earth to punish his evil and disobedient creations. When Noah brings back his God-given plan to his family, his wife refuses to enter the ark and even encourages him to marry again if he fully pursues his plan. "Ere row forth, Noah, whither thou list, and get thee a new wife ("Noah's Flood " 73). The wife has disorderly defied her husband and ultimately God by declaring to stay behind and gives, what some consider to be an irrational reason to defy one's husband, which is to remain with her friends. This, as stated earlier, is definitely not an example of submission which would disqualify her as candidate for the label of a "good woman ". However, her sons " another example of how low even the writers of the time thought of women " saves her candidacy by bringing aboard the ark.