ABSTRACT
The Homeric legends or the Grimms' tales brought a masculine slant to the way women were thought about and described, and men have had a much easier time in their legends. In this chapter, the author utilizes S. Freud as an example of the anxiety many men have faced when trying to fit women into a masculine way of thinking. One of the clearest examples of the anxiety about women and their desires is to be found in the Old Testament in the mysterious legend of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The shift in the divorce law that Caroline Norton helped to bring about was nevertheless slow to change the attitude towards women if they were thought to have committed adultery. In 1864 there was another much reported divorce case brought by Vice-Admiral Codrington against his wife Helen.
