' Bertrande de Rols, according to Davis, is an example of the more broad-minded and less woman hating peasant society of the village of Artigat in 16th Century France. Through Bertrande de Rols, learn about how surprisingly fair the law was towards women: 'The testaments in the area around Artigat rarely benefit one child but instead provide dowries for the daughters. (If there are only daughters, the property is divided equally among them)' .
Contrary to that, in order to lay the proper social foundation, the tragic tale of the title character was saved until last. Woman Wang's husband, Jen (or Chen) was a typical seventeenth-century spouse, occasionally resorting to physical violence in order to maintain his concept of household order. She was expected to comply with this marital arrangement without question, and remain the model of piety and fidelity. While divorce was not an option to her, her husband could legally divorce her if she failed to produce a male heir. If the woman was suspected of committing adultery, her fate was usually death, for she had morally disgraced her family, which was regarded as the ultimate crime. Desperate situations require desperate measures, and contrary to her female counterparts, the woman Wang boldly took a lover, and attempted to escape her miserable marital existence.
The tale of the widow P"eng was a typical example of the code of justice promoted by the Ch"ing dynasty. According to the laws of T"an-ch"eng, if a husband dies and he does not have a male heir, his property reverts to the widow. However, if the widow remarries or dies, the property then goes to the husband's family. Despite the pressures to remarry, which would have allowed her husband's family to confiscate the property, the widow P"eng refused . This, therefore, meant that the property legally belonged to her son, Lien. So, in order to gain control of the P"eng property, one of the deceased husband's family members killed Lien, in order to inherit the property.