Literary Devices in “I Want a Wife”
A man’s nightmare and a boy’s daydream: a wife. Once men have grown too old to be cared for by their mothers, they often find a wife to take her place. While some cherish her, others greatly take advantage of her. Judy Brady writes about how she, too, would like a wife.
Judy wrote her essay to help her audience understand the position women are becoming to their husbands. Instead of his companion, she is more relatable to a nanny or a personal assistant. Wives are not seen as workers, but nurturers. Brady most likely wrote this piece for wives and husbands to understand that there is more to a woman than just being a wife. She is a caretaker, a lover, and ultimately a second mother. Judy uses ethos, pathos, and logos in her essay. At the beginning of her work, she writes about how she is a wife and a mother herself. Next, she wrote the majority of her essay in a man’s
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These three terms greatly impact the reader’s perspective on wives. Next, Judy Brady uses denotation and euphemism in her essay. Judy often refers to herself as “I” but she does not necessarily mean herself. She is writing in as a man who is longing for a wife. Therefor, “I” is symbolizing the man’s view on his wife. Also, Judy’s essay is full of euphemisms. With each reason, she is just using euphemism instead of stating the true statement which is, “I want a wife who will do everything for me and not bother me when I do not want her.” Lastly, Brady’s tone is ironic. Judy Brady definitely made her readers think. First, she used logos to state all of the reasons a selfish husband may want a wife. Second, she used euphemism to state the harsh reality of why this man wants a wife. Third, she wrote in a ironic tone to tell her story by asking why she wants a wife and ending by writing, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” All in all, Judy explained how the women’s role has became sexist and unfair in
In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife,” she examines why she would like to have a wife. Brady believes that a wife performs all house chores and the husband does nothing, but to expect the wife to do everything for him. Brady tries to persuade the reader to look at a husband viewpoint of what a wife should be. The essay was written during the early 1960’s, during the second wave of the feminist movement in America. Brady is pushed by certain reasons to write, “I Want a Wife” to show the humanist humor.
The characters of Daisy and Judy are similar in their selfish personalities and want of material things. Both women led the men on, but end up married to other men and are unhappy in their marriages. Jay and Dexter become a distraction to the woman while they are trying to win them back, but it is ultimately not enough. All the money in the world will not fix the second part to both men’s dreams, the loves of their life. Despite all the success, their money can’t buy them the one thing they’ve been striving for and dreaming of.
In Judy (Syfers) Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, she expresses her opinions in a satirical commentary that offers hypothetical criteria for an ideal wife, with an underlying message that deals with how people should be grateful for all of the deeds and chores that women do. Brady utilizes the strategy of
In summary, Judy Brady makes strong appeals to the audience in her essay using logos. She strives to display how simple a husband’s life is by listing all the tasks a wife must perform with pathos and by illustrating the discrimination among men and
In the beginning when Adam was created, God knew man needed a woman to fulfill the Earth so he made Eve. The household perception of society in the 1970’s was that men needed a woman to do everything for him. A husband went to his job and did nothing while his wife ran the household, cared for their children, including the husband himself. The wife rarely had time for herself and acted as a slave for her family. Judy Brady uses logos to connect with her audience in “Why I Want a Wife”.
“I want a Wife” is an essay written by Judy Brady in the 1970s for a magazine. The aim for the essay written was to show how oppressed women were during that time period and how badly they were treated by men. The essay was written during the early development of feminism. The article written aimed to raise the attention of readers during the time, introducing them to feminism. In writing the article for a Women’s magazine, Brady seemed to be sharing a similar frustration with other women who were in the same position as herself.
of people known as wives,” (I Want a Wife) that certainly can catch the attention of another wife.
Tons of Tones “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady portrays very sexist ideologies, as does Kincaid in her essay “Girl.” Similar, old fashioned views on how women show behave, demanding women to be civil, quiet citizens in society are both expressed by the authors. Though despite the common theme, the tone separates the intentions of each essay to contradict one another. Brady is prideful, spiteful, and condemning to husbands for their lack of appreciation for how hard women try to be perfect for them.
In Judy Brady’s article “I Want A Wife”, she uses repetition greatly in her essay to make her point, why wouldn’t anyone want a wife. Judy Brady was born in 1937 in San Francisco and got a B.A at the University of Iowa in 1962. Brady’s article first appeared in the feminist magazine Ms., which was in Arlington County, Virginia in 1972. The author’s main idea was to show the amount of work that a wife is expected to do. She does this by strategically listing out what she looks for in a wife. She constantly says, “I want a wife”, to signify that she wants someone to do these things for her as she has done for her husband. In today’s society, the wife is seen as the caretaker and doer of all businesses, while still catering to a
She essentially discusses how she does all of these things, but doesn’t get much in return. Another example of pathos in this essay is when she talks specifically about the sexual relationship that a wife and husband have. “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it, a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it.” In this quote, Brady compares the sex that a wife has with her husband to another chore that she does. She shows that there is no mutual emotion or desire between them and that it is more of a duty of a wife rather than a pleasure. Essentially, she compares herself and any other wife to a sex puppet who is just there to service the husband with little to no joy. These two examples make the reader sympathize with Brady and the common housewife because of all of the responsibilities that they have as well as how they get little to no pleasure out of what they have to do. Lastly, Brady’s hasty tone shows her resentment towards divorced men as well as men in general. This allows the audience to understand her feelings on the topic of gender dynamics and it forces the audience to feel that way too.
Throughout this article Brady uses ethos, logos, and pathos to illustrate her opinion that the wife does too much in a family. Brady connects with her audience by relating to what was expected of them back in the 1970’s. She states reasons to why she wants a wife and lists what she says a wife would do for her. Lastly, Brady connects emotionally to her audience by
In paragraphs three through seven, Brady provides the reader with what she desires in a wife. Through repetition and tone, she shows the reader the unrealistic roles of a wife.
Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.
Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook, someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. In the essay "I Want A Wife," Judy Brady points out the different roles of a "wife" according to society at that time. I believe that Brady is sarcastically describing the ideal wife every man dreams of. Even though, women have been fighting for their rights for a long time now, even today women are still not equal to men in many ways. In today's society women are more respected and are acceptable for many jobs as men are, but still they are not treated equally all the times. Brady is a wife herself, and in her essay she wishes she had a wife that she described. Brady brings out all the
Judy Brady wrote an article called “I Want a Wife”. In this article she describes the perfect wife and, in her eyes, the husband's duties. Judy Brady wrote “I Want a Wife” in the Spring of 1972. Born in 1937, Brady grew up in a time where it was normal for the wife to not have a job and stay at home. Although there has been a lot of changes since this paper was written, I believe, in general, men do not treat women this bad.