Only a Woman.

         On February 17th, 1894, The Illustrated Police News (IPN) published a story called “Only a Woman.” The story does not appear to be a news report, but rather, a short story. The story is about an 18 years old girl named Bessie who is the eldest child of a family of six. She went to boarding school for two years and have just returned home to work at the farm and the town’s post-office. However, after seeing the world outside her own town, she realized that she is different from her other wealthy classmates. So, she claimed, “If I could only do some good in the world I would then be content.” Recognizing that she is not rich and is of no importance, she aims to make an impact in this world somehow.
         When Bessie heard that an acquaintance, Ellis Percy, obtained a negative reputation in town for his drinking new habits, she decided to take action. As a post-mistress, Bessie handed a letter to Ellis Percy when he arrived for his mails. Later, the man came to say goodbye to Bessie and he told her that an anonymous letter encouraged him to “go abroad and make a man” of himself. This man became passionate toward making a change in his life. Soon, Ellis Percy realized that it was Bessie who wrote the letter to him.
         He then thanked her and asked her to write to him while he is abroad. The story states, “Then Bessie put down her blushes, and looked up in her untainted womanhood.” At this moment, like Lady Audley from Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novel Lady Audley’s Secret, Bessie’s womanhood visibly becomes associated with a sense of innocence. Although she is the one who actively created change in the story, her effort is overpowered by her defined nature of being a woman. Bessie told Ellis Percy that she will not be able to write to him while he is away. She wished him, “In the day you become a man, I shall hope to meet you.” They shook hands and parted ways.
        With Ellis Percy’s disappearance from the town, people begin to question whether he committed suicide or ran away. Bessie kept the truth to herself, she didn’t believe that people would understand how “a woman’s hand, small and slender, had been the means of sending forth a soul to be clothed anew as a firm, honest man once more.” She did not think society would accept that she, as a woman, would have had the power to influence a man to change his life.
         As days pass, Bessie began to wonder about Ellis Percy's new life abroad, she wondered when he would be back and whether he would ask her in marriage when he returns. She began to grow pale, but the thought that she “had done a little good, even if she was small and only a woman” gave her comfort. She was content that she was able to do what she did for Ellis. Four years have gone by and Bessie is finally griefed over for her death. As they laid her body into the grave, Ellis Percy appeared and mourned over this woman “who has been all the world to him, while to others she had simply been ‘only a woman.’”
         The words “only a woman” points to this socially constructed idea that Bessie is one who has served in this society as a “woman.” In Kate Manne's Down Girl, the writer highlights this idea that a woman is positioned through norms to be "required to show him moral respect, approval, admiration, deference, and gratitude, as well as moral attention, sympathy, and concern" (xix). The story in IPN points to the many roles that Bessie was expected to play. From working at the farm for her family to encouraging a man to success (respect and approval), to waiting for the man to come back for her hands (attention), to longing for love till death (admiration); Bessie played her assigned parts. When Bessie wanted to make a difference in the world, she did it not as an individual, she didn't go out into the world to make a change for herself. Instead, she encouraged a man to do so, so she "made a difference" by playing her role as a woman who is “only a woman.”