Final answer:
Women were expected to behave peacefully and please their husbands based on societal norms that emphasized obedience and loyalty as virtues in married life. Bai suggests that such obedience brings blessings and a noble status to a woman.
Step-by-step explanation:
Katherine suggests that women should behave peacefully and please their husbands because women of great families have a horror of what is disgraceful and are therefore more obedient in all that is honorable. Bai indicates that a woman should obey her husband as it is seen as noble, and even if it leads to death, such obedience is viewed as virtuous, bringing blessings to her family and herself in this world and the next. The act of sati, which involves a widow sacrificing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, was considered an extreme demonstration of loyalty and obedience to a husband, reflecting societal expectations for a woman's role within marriage.