What Is The Tone Of I Want A Wife

Judy Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife” uses a sarcastic tone in order to illuminate the amount of much pressure that is put on wives, not just by their husbands, but by society as well. Brady’s tone voices to the audience that changes need to be made to the role of women.

Brady recognizes how much work women who are wives truly have to do. Brady highlights the fact that, “I want a wife who will work and send me to school.” This illustrates that the wife’s needs will come last. Since her husband requests to go to work, the wife is expected to get a job to support the family as well as take care of everything else. Instead of the husband assisting at home, with the housework and taking care of the kids, since he is not working anymore, the wife is still expected to do it. Ever since women were just little girls, they have been taught that it is

their job to do all the domestic work when they get married.

This is not only taught to them by their parents, but by society as well. There are countless movies and television shows where the wife is the one who stays at home to take care of the children, clean and cook. Likewise, little girls are taught from such a young age that when they become wives, it is a prerequisite that they do whatever they can to keep their families happy. When people visit their friend’s or family’s house, they presume the wife would do all the work. They want her to serve and feed them, all while the husband gets to be treated just like a guest. “…I want a wife who will have the house clean, will prepare a special meal, and serve it to me and my friends and not interrupt when I talk…” The wife is not being treated like an equal by the husband, she is taken advantage of and is expected to do everything for everyone, including her guests. If children were raised

differently, both boys and girls, and they are taught that both genders need to help each other to do domestic work, the wife will end up doing less work. If young boys were taught the same as young girls, the relationship between husbands and wives will be so much better.
Wives have an excessive amount of work to do in their households. Brady’s exaggerated tone exemplifies this by showing how the wife has to literally do everything while the husband goes to school. The wives are expected to do everything, virtually like a servant. Women cannot be the sole workers of their family. Brady states that, “I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after my children, a wife who will pick up after me.” Families have to work together to make the work load easier for everyone. When families assume that a wife will do everything that needs to be done in a house, she will get tired and overwhelmed, especially if she is also financially supporting the family. Brady’s tone practically makes wives sound like servants for their families. For this reason, the audience knows that changes definitely need to be made. Brady describes “… a wife who will make sure that my personal things are kept in their proper place so that I can find it.” By articulating this, Brady reveals that husbands expect their wives to take care of their lives. The husbands just expect to go to work and they assume that their wives will handle everything else. These ideas absolutely need to be changed, and everyone should take care of themselves. Not only does the wife have to take care of the kids, but it is also a obligation that she has to take care of the husband, and Brady expresses this through her sarcastic and dramatic tone.