i want a wife ? In her essay, “I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady lists the responsibilities of the typical wife in the 1970′s. Brady informs the readers about the treatment of wives and shares her frustrations. She writes in a sarcastic tone, when it comes to discussing a man’s point of view, how easy it would be if she had a wife and how nice it would be. The point she was getting across to the reader was that wives are undervalued.
She uses several methods of development. Brady is very descriptive in defining "wife" in her essay. Week 2 Discussion Posting 2 Read Deborah Tannen's essay "Sex, Lies, and Conversation" on page 164 of Discovering a Voice. Who is Tannen's intended audience? Women?
How does Brady over exaggerate her views? To start with, Brady takes this subject at hand in a very sensitive manner. During the 1960’s females were viewed as inferior to men, so raising touchy subjects such as a woman getting rights or developing into something other than a “house-wife” needed to be approached strategically. Brady approaches this subject by saying she “wants a wife” (179). Good wives were considered to cook, clean, take care of the children, and treat their husbands well.
) Feminists have a macro, modernist and a conflict based theory (as suggested in item 2B) which focuses on the relationship between men and women, as they claim that men are the enemy, and a source of oppression and exploitation (Radical feminist Firestone 79). Feminists see family roles as unequal, and that women are exploited in the home as they provide free labour as suggested in item 2B. This was studied by the feminist Ann Oakley (74) who done studies about family roles to contribute to our understanding of the difference between women and men. She found that the views of ‘march of progress’ thinkers were exaggerated and their claims about symmetry in the roles within the home are not correct. Her findings showed that men could help at home, but this could mean making breakfast on one occasion or taking children on Sundays, but this only gave the woman more time for her role of housekeeping.
Steinbeck presents the character of Curley’s wife to be attractive, flirtatious and vulnerable and she is a very complex character. On the one hand, Steinbeck is making the reader feel sympathy for her, however, on the other hand she is shown to be provocative and enticing to the men on the ranch. She represents the women back in the 1930s who weren’t seen as independent women but were seen as an extension of their husbands rather than being independent and the loneliness that came from the jealousy and distrust towards young women at the time. The first time you hear about Curley’s wife is when candy describes her to George. Candy uses expression such as “she got the eye” and goes on to describe her as looking at other men because of this they call her a “tart”.
Giovanni’s power of mind- ability to use words and convincing arguments to get what he wants. Power is present in Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath and Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore throughout, especially in relationships between male and female characters. Particularly in The Wife of Bath where the pardoner interrupts the Wife’s tale, it presents the power the male character attempts to have over the female character. Medieval pardoners work for the church, collecting money from those sorry for their sins, which is now seen as a rather corrupt job to have held at the time; which perhaps shows that Chaucer wanted the pardoner’s interruption of the female’s tale, and consequent swift dismissal of his interruption, to be seen as a stupid and corrupt male mistakenly attempting to overpower the strong independent women. Similarly, in ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, the male character Giovanni asserts his power over Annabella, but Ford does this in the opposite way that Chaucer did.
The writer makes her readers aware that she knows what she is talking about in the early parts of the essay because she has experienced it herself. “I belong to the classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And, not al-together incidentally, I am a mother.” (para. 1).
The tone of Brady’s essay reveals that she is fed up with the dominant attitude of men. She describes all the things that she must do as a wife and how pleasurable it would be if she could have a wife to return all of the same quality deeds that she possesses. Brady shows how selfish and ridiculously self-centered a man can be. She must worry about his physical needs, social life, sexual needs, child care and cleanliness of their home establishment. I believe Brady’s tone and writing style seems perfect for this topic.
EXAMINE THE WAY STEINBECK PRESENTS THE CHARACTER OF CURLEYS WIFE. Steinbeck presents the character of curleys wife to be attractive, flirtatious and vulnerable and she is a very complex character. On the one hand, Steinbeck is making the reader feel sympathy for her, however, on the other hand she is shown to be provocative and enticing to the men on the ranch. She represents the women back in the 1930s who weren’t seen as independent women but were seen as an extension of their husbands rather than being independent. Steinbeck uses many different techniques to present Curley's wife such as colour imagery, appearance, metaphors and similes in the early stages of the novel.
In “The Storm”, Chopin expresses her opinion and idea to speak for marriage women’s sexual desire in the late1800’s. Back to the story, sexuality is not only fulfills Calixta’s sexual desire and also gives her joy and satisfaction. To be more specific, this story focused on the storm, love, sex, and marriage. At that period of time, Chopin conveys to the readers that women don’t have much opportunities and powers to speak for themselves. The author illustrates to all the women how lonely and dependently women have in the family.