In I Want a Wife by Judy Brady, the author generates a captivating argument concerning a wife's responsibilities in a family household. The article was published in Ms. magazine in 1971, this magazine was a feminist which makes this biased. The article becomes visible to be leading towards women, married audience. Nonetheless, her message also goes to clueless men.
In Brady's short story the main argument was of the writer wanting eagerly a wife ,a caregiver, a maid. Bardy's reason for wanting a wife is to make life easier on herself and do the things she wants to do. This shows how much effort a housewife puts into their household and children. The Purpose of this short story goes more in depth such as a marriage relationships and gender specific, also this art of literature is provocative and makes you cross-examine your thoughts on wives.
Judy writes in her essay regarding the requirements that are demanded from a wife. She stresses the jobs of a wife are unfair and that there is a clear difference of inequality between a husband and wife. Fatigued by the inconsistency in the household work and the obvious work of a wife that does not get recognized, she communicates her feelings to us the readers. Brady shows her point with examples of household tasks that are mainly accomplished by a wife. Brady lists tasks after tasks which make it seems as being a wife is physically and mentally impossible, Brady then finishes her short story with a cry of desperation , "My God, who wouldn't want a wife?"
Being a housewife has its disadvantages such as working everyday without help nor acknowledgment from anyone. All around the world housewives are folding clothes, arranging closets, cleaning millions of surfaces and cooking every...
... middle of paper ...
...need a break and want someone who will do everything for them.
In conclusion, “I want a wife” goes more in depth of just the typical wanting a wife just because the tittle says so. It is more about the emotional pain a wife has to go trough to take care of her family. In the end Brady could have not stated it better, “My God, who wouldn't want a wife?”
Works Cited
Elizabeth , Scott. "Stay-At-Home Moms and Stress Relief."Stress Management. Relate, 08 Apr 2008. Web. 6 Mar 2014.
Gottman, John Mordechai, and Nan Silver. The seven principles for making marriage work. Random House LLC, 1999. Print.
Jhonson, Rachael. "Men are as Useless as Homer." . Associated Newspapers Ltd, 15 Jun 2013. Web. 6 Mar 2014.
Olsen, Wendy, and Smita Mehta. "Female Labour Participation in Rural and Urban India: Does Housewives' Work Count?." Radical Statistics 93 (2006): 57.
Now a days, Society think about women that they , have youngsters, and deal with the family unit. However with such a significant number of assignments a spouse is required to finish, what makes her any unique in relation to a worker or a cleaning specialist? By the spouse being relied upon to watch over the tyke after a separation, clean the house, deal with the kids, and serve the necessities of the husband, Brady communicates that she would need a wife as well. In Brady's article "I Want a Wife", Brady utilizes incongruity and reiteration to mirror society's view on ladies and spouses.
In the short story ?Why I want a wife? by Judy Brady, she goes into detail what being a wife is like. The tedious details of day to day activities, the strain and hard work of being a ?good wife?, and the unappreciated service a wife must perform to be accepted by her husband. This story made me feel like, the author
Marriage is an important theme in the stories Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. When someone hears the word “marriage”, he thinks of love and protection but Hurston and Chopin see that differently. According to them, women are trapped in their marriage and they don’t know how to get out of it so they use language devices to prove their points.
After listing the “jobs” of a woman as wife and mother, Judy puts forward this question to the readers to discuss about what she said. Here she shows that everybody needs a wife as working instrument, which cooks, take care, fulfill the hunger of husbands’ sexual needs, and is also replaceable. This ending is extremely emotional and pathetic and it allows the readers to conclude that this is wrong. She wants the readers, whoever it is, old, young, men and especially women to understand that this attitude to women as a whole, is wrong and should be changed. She also encourages the readers to take action against this treatment of women and also wants the husbands to stop unfair treatment of their wives, including their attitude of demanding too much from their wives. She also tried to encourage women who are unconscious of such activities and being quite against the treatment of their husband, thinking this as the part of the traditional “home wife”. The author also wants people, especially women to get angry and feel emotional, with this
Martineau clearly had a strong political agenda in writing this story, however in doing so, she addresses the fundamental difference she sees in the roles of responsibility in marriage. In her mind, the husband and the wife have clearly defined roles, not so much along lines of production, but rather in terms of the household. That which is in the household, whether it is the domestic duties or financial responsibility, falls to the wife while it is the husband who is responsible for the income stream.
Writings from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s often depict husbands as controlling. This would lead to the demise of their wives. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman the husband’s insistence upon control, leaves their wives longing for the freedom of simple expression. “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates how the husband is the controlling figure in the marriage. The two short stories also expose how the oppression put on them by their husband leaves the women unfulfilled and unhappy with their lives.
In class there have been many discussions over the relationships and marriages among the books we have read. When someone thinks of marriage, a fairy tale with a happy ending might come to mind, or possibly a safe haven for those looking for something stable. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, marriage takes a turn for the worse. Marriage is no longer the happy memories in a lifetime. It can be the thing that hinders the women in these stories from developing their full potential or experiencing the world and other lifestyles. Through these texts and this time frame, we will analyze the meaning of their marriages, how they function, and the end result of both.
In eighteen ninety - one, when the "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written, women were often treated as second - class citizens. They were, for the most part, dominated by a society controlled by men. The men were the leaders, ruling the home and the workplace; the women were under their authority. The wife, of whom this story is about, reflects this attitude society has towards her. Her husband even decides what furniture and things are to be in her room. She submits to those decisions, even to the point of agreeing with him. This is evidenced when she says, "But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things……I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim"(472). Wives like this were regarded as possessions of the husbands, and, in light of that, they had few rights. Just as was the wife, many women were believed to be good only for bearing children and running a household. Often times the husband retained a housekeeper or some such servant so the wives only bore children and did little else. In the case of the wife in our story, her husband, John, ...
...show us that the choices for women in marriage were both limited and limiting in their scope and consequences. As can be seen, it came down to a choice between honoring the private will of the self, versus, honoring the traditions and requirements of society as a whole. Women were subject to the conditions set down by the man of the house and because of the social inequality of women as a gender class; few fought the rope that tied them down to house, hearth, and husband, despite these dysfunctions. They simply resigned themselves to not having a choice.
In Judy Brady’s, “I Want A Wife” (1971) sarcasm or a humorous tone is expressed on the topic of what makes a wife. Brady repetitively states, “I want a wife” and begins to list what makes “a wife.” Brady defines a wife as someone who takes care of the children, cleans and cooks, gives up her ti...
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of the Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are viewed from a woman’s perspective in the nineteenth century. They show the issues on how they are confined to the house. That they are to be stay at home wives and let the husband earn the household income. These stories are both written by American women and how their marriage was brought about. Their husbands were very controlling and treated them more like children instead of their wives. In the nineteenth century their behavior was considered normal at the time. In “The Story of the Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both women explore their issues on wanting to be free from the control of their husband’s.
it provided to men, one must honestly ask themselves "who wouldn't want a wife?" (Brady-Syfer 803).
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
In May 1955, Housekeeping Monthly published an article titled The Good Wife’s Guide. This article provided eighteen tips for women; what they should be performing in the home and how to keep their husbands happy. “Have dinner ready”, “Clear away clutter”, and “Don’t ask him questions about his actions…” are just three of the eighteen instructions. (Housekeeping Monthly) One reason this article could have been so readily accepted, was due to the simplicity of life in that era. Women rarely voiced their opinions or challenged the gender norms. Therefore, the author’s intent could have been, “let’s give women tips on how to make their husbands happier and keep the households in order”. However, taking into consideration the gender norm of the era and contrasting it to the twenty-first century certainly brings up a host of issues when taking into consideration that the majority of today’s families are dual income earners.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.