These roles paint two negative pictures for the roles that were available to women in Japan in the early nineteen hundreds. Women could either be promiscuous temptresses or kowtowing, opinionless housewives. Speaking as a women and gender studies minor, I think it is infinitely sad that these are the ways that the authors chose to portray the women in this story.
One good point for the roles of women is that at least Benzen was independent and pursued what she wanted. I don't condone lying or stealing, but she did achieve her desires in the end. But what really irked me was that Tacibana knew her husband was off gallivanting around when he was looking for that golden apple, and she didn't seem upset by it. She never confronted or accused him of the poor treatment he was doling out.
Tacibana's strategy seemed to be that if she was meek and didn't whine, her husband would stop his infidelity and come back to her. So she minded her own business in the home, trying to be the perfect housewife.
(Image information: "Good House Keeping," an American magazine 1908)
And then when she saved him from the fiery forest, she seemed sure that she had proved her devoted love to him. But he didn't leave Benzen until she stole his mighty sword. So it wasn't even his choice in the first place to leave his lover.
With that, this story might be about how little power men actually have in regards to some women like Benzen. So in order to feel powerful, they exploit the other women in their lives like Tacibana. I have so many possible theories about the situation that I'm not really sure.
To be fair, women haven't always been portrayed well in other stories we've read for this class. But for some reason, probably the cheating, the gender roles stuck out to me like a sore thumb in this story, and I have to say that I wasn't a fan of that.
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