‘Chivalrous Ideal’
Women overtly countersign chivalrous principles among men. Mill explicates, “ Both through the contagion of sympathy, and through the desire of men to shine in the eyes of women, their feelings have great effect in keeping alive what remains of the chivalrous ideal—in fostering the sentiments and continuing the traditions of spirit and generosity. In these points of character, their standard is higher than that of men; in the quality of justice, somewhat lower.” The ‘Chivalrous ideal’ is emblematical of dignity which portrays a man as an honorable nobleman. Women are influential in swaying men to behave in a moral and alluring mode.
Martyrdom
Mill observes employs the figurative martyrdom to portray the perverse canons women are anticipated to submit to: “Society makes the whole life of a woman, in the easy classes, a continued self-sacrifice; it exacts from her an unremitting restraint of the whole of her natural inclinations, and the sole return it makes to her for what often deserves the name of a martyrdom, is consideration. Her consideration is inseparably connected with that of her husband, and after paying the full price for it, she finds that she is to lose it, for no reason of which she can feel the cogency.” The demands that humanity enforces on womenfolk are analogous to those of martyrdom for the society expects a woman to detriment her securities but it does not oblige males to ransom their penchants.
