Sharlene Filpo Eng-150 I Want a Wife (1971) In the essay “I want a Wife “by Judy Brady in the 1970’s, she writes a striking satire about women who played the role of “house wife’s” and all the helpful task they did for their husbands and children , without they noticing that this “wife task” could be actually done by their own husbands. While she irons some clothes, it occurred to her that she also wanted a wife because of all the desired wife tasks men expected from them. She goes on giving a list of all this task, starting from having the wife work to send her back to school, to serving her in all aspects like cleaning , cooking , nanning and sexually needs. I was very angry when reading this essay because even thought she was being sarcastic about it, this is what men and even women expected of a house wife’s during those times. The parts that bother me the most was about the wife giving sexual need to their spouses.
These observations, coupled with her never ending excuses of why she wants a wife throughout the essay, kept me interested and also had me considering how they might compare to my life experiences. Brady's reasons for wanting a wife are seemingly endless: To support her, to take care of her children (at all times), to take care of her physical needs, to keep the house clean, to take care of her sexual needs (when she wants her to), to take full responsibility and to remain faithful until she might need to marry another wife, just to name a few! To sum things up, after Brady finishes schooling, she wants her wife to quit work, so she can completely take on the full responsibilities of a wife. What I would like to do is take some positives from this sarcastic, female chauvinistic literature. For almost every instance that Brady states she wants a wife, I would agree with her.
Tan likes to show Lindo through indirect characterization. Lindo would always try to make things right. She would be polite to her new mother in law and when she was with her mother in law she would hold out a treat and say “ For you, Mother” (53). Even though Huang Taitai was not her real mother, Lindo would act as though she was, but before Lindo did this she would turn to her mother and ask for forgivness. This shows that she is a caring girl and she will always try to behave and be nice to every one.
Titus 2: 3-5 states that, "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored," (The Christian Woman", 2004). Issues that Christian wives face Some of the
In “I want a wife”, Judy demonstrate how women are conditioned to be care takers for their home and family. Society creates the image that women should take care of the house while the men provide for the house.” I want a wife who will keep the house clean, a wife who will pick up after my children, a wife who will pick up after me.” In this part of the essay Judy is expressing what is expected of a wife to do. In the 18th century females were seen as objects and not as an individual human. They were expected to stay home cook, clean and have children. Women were considered men’s property and they were expected to listen to all their commands.
As the girl prepares for her wedding the next day, we see her “astray among the cards and wedding gifts- the coffee pots and clocks”. The fact that she seems to feel lost, tells us that she does not particularly want to get married, it is just expected of her to marry. From Boland’s regretful and antagonistic tones while speaking through these poems, it is clear she opposes what is expected of women. Passing of Time As in her poems “The War Horse”, “Child of Our Time”, “The Famine Road” and “The Pomegranate”, a
She states in the first chapter that the “solace” of marriage is “visiting and news.” This explains why Mrs Bennett is so desperate for her husband to visit Bingley and find out more about him and to introduce him to their daughters. It is either her marriage that she is worrying about or the prospect of her daughters’ marriages. Marriage is also presented as a key moment in the lives of women and this is shown by the fact that the only things that Mr and Mrs Bennett discuss in the first chapter of the book are their daughter’s possible marriages. The significance of marriage in
No, but it helps. Does the protagonist have to be an ideal type? Not if the novel represents a complex character engaged in conflicts she experiences through living as a woman in a social milieu that “inhibits instinctual aims” (that is, any medium of social organization: marriage, work, The Law, etc) “GYNOCENTRISM” IN THE PLOT OF EYES: 1. The narrative is a female “bildungsroman”: a novel of education, initiated in the unsatisfactory social goals envisioned by the older generation (“mother”) for the younger (“daughter”) 2. Janie’s sexual identity emerges from an exploration of her own desires: her discovery of sexual feelings is not prompted by the presence of a man; and the acquisition of her “voice” emerges from the creation, in the field of her desire, of egalitarian dialogue with a man 3.
Judy Brady, in her essay “Why I Want a Wife”, use irony tone to list that the responsibilities of the traditional wives in society. Throughout the essay, she informs the reader about the different treatments between the gender roles and shares her desperate feeling of being a wife. The essay begins with the author categorizing herself as a wife and a mother. While thinking about her male friend who is looking for another wife after divorce, she suddenly wants a wife and she lists the reasons why she would like to have a wife. The first reason is that a wife can take care of her children while her husband goes back to school.
The author portrays the tendency of people getting used to others desires and the norms made by society instead of focusing on their own. Lorca presents opposing points of view in Blood Wedding. For example, the Bride feels restrained due to the fact that she is forced into marrying a man she does not love and let alone be isolated away from society perpetually. In Blood Wedding, gender roles are reinforced in a certain way in order to establish distinct feelings among the characters forcing them to make wrong decisions which will later result in a tragedy. For instance, the Bride and Leonardo run away due to the love they feel toward each other; Later on, the reader learns that Leonardo and the Groom have killed each other.