Year Of Wonders Gender Roles

Religion had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of life in the medieval world. In the Christian belief, the first two people that were created by God were Adam and Eve. They were provided with a paradise to live in,the garden of Eden, and were only given one rule that they had to follow to not eat from the tree of good and evil. If they did eat fruit from the tree, then they would have to leave the paradise. Eve was tempted by Satan, and ate fruit from the tree. She then gave some of that fruit to Adam, and they were banend from the garden. For this reason, women were seen as dangerous temptresses. This story showed that women were morally weaker, and were likely to lead their spouses into sin. They became known as the “weaker” sex, for

For instance, in the case of mass death, such as the plague. That is due to the fact that at that point comminuties could use all of the help that they could get. As clearly seen in Year of Wonders, it is an all hands on deck situation. Not only did the outbreak of the plague have an effect on the human relations and social norms in the village, but it also had an effect on gender roles. In the begining of the novel when Anna first begins to talk about Elinor she says, “But of her herb knowledge I wanted none; it is one thing for a pastor’s wife to have such learning and another thing again for a widow woman of my sort” (Brooks, p.38). Anna was already at a disadvantage for she was a widow, and had no male figure to lean on. She knew that if she were to begin studying medicinal plants then she would potentially be accused of being a witch. As the novel continued, Anna actually came to help Elinor try to come up with a medicinal cure for the plague. As more people died, the more people lost faith, and became desperate. Therefore, it became a situation where women could go beyond their prescribed roles. Another example of this, is when Merry is about to lose her family’s mine because she has not produced enough to meet her quota. In order to help Merry, Elinor and Anna take on the role that is considered a man’s, and become miners for the

This is especially evident in Year of Wonders, Mem and Anys Gowdie were the medicine women of the village. Having knowledge of medicinal plants was not seen as an advantage at this time, for many believed that God sent illness down on people to test them and teach them lessons. Trying to prevent these illnesses would essentially be equivalent to going against God’s will. When the plague hit the village and continued to spread the community began to blame witches. Which is especially interesting, since they believed that if there was an illness it was God’s will, yet they blamed witches for the outbreak. Mem Gowdie is an example of a women who went beyond the prescribed gender roles. She was not married, was not religious, and spent a large portion of her time working with medicinal plants and herbs. The village began to believe she was a witch, so they threw her into a well. This was a common practice done in the midieval world to determine if someone was a witch. If the person floates then they are considered a witch, but if the person begins drowning then it is clear that they are innocent. In this case, Mem began to drown, and Anys came to her rescue. Once she recessitated Mem the townspeople immediately thought that it was Anys that was the witch. For this reason, Anys was