The Stepford Wives

Reading The Stepford Wives, by Ira Levin leaves one with many questions, the biggest being “why?” and “how?”. For example, “how” could engineers accurately create a clone of a human? Or “why” would they want to? The mystery throughout the book, and more so nearing the end of the books prompts such things to be wondered. In this essay, there will be a analysis of feminist insecurities within The Stepford Wives, and another novel, called Matched. The insecurities within these books are what enables the plot.

Throughout the book The Stepford Wives, the main character, Johanna, is trying to figure why every woman in the new town she moved to is so “perfect”. These women's characters seem so off putting, which leads her to question her surroundings.

Another novel that shows this is Matched, by Ally Condie. This novel is a more modernized/futuristic setting, but yet still has this wise strong character. The difference between The Stepford Wives and Matched is, in The Stepford Wives it’s not clearly expressed whether what Johanna is doing is good or bad. This is questioned by the reader, after Bobby is “transformed”, Johanna asks Bobbys child if they notice the differences in their mother, and if it bothers them. The child responded with, yes, of course they notice the difference in their mother, but he does not have care much for that because now his mother is doing things that she never dreamed of doing before, such as making him pancakes every morning. One questions to be asked, is does he enjoy his “new” and improved mother because he is selfish, or if because he is a male, and the men in this book are a meninists- the opposite of feminists. In Matched, the book has more of a biased approach, making the reader believe that the main character, Cassia, is doing the right thing by going against the government. Both characters are in controlled environments, with the wish to go against and break free from it. The difference in how the novels are portrayed could be due to the fact of gender of the authors. The Stepford Wives was written by a male, likely meaning he better appreciated the male selfishness in the novel. This selfishness comes into play by the men allowing their wives to be transformed into robots, all for the benefit of themselves. This therefore potentially saying a woman doing such thing is wrong, kind of an anti-feminist, while the author of Matched is a woman, and is believed to be portraying strong