It isn’t easy being a doctor. Some of the most prestigious doctors in the world spend countless years studying and perfecting how to be of aid to people. They have to stay up late when their patients need them. They have to do everything in their power to save the day. Well, the same could be said about a wife. Wives, too, spend their time aiding each and every family member. They sacrifice all their time for their husband and kids’ needs. They do their best to keep everyone happy without expecting a simple thank you in return. Well, the same could be said about a slave. In Judy Syfers’ “Why I Want a Wife”, she displays the mistreatment and underappreciation of wives by portraying the as indentured servants through the use of anaphoras, repetition, and irony: all of which illuminate the pure mistreatment of wives by their husbands. …show more content…
Right from the start, Syfers begins by addressing her desire for a wife. After stepping into a husband’s well-polished pair of shoes she starts listing all of her expectations she has for her wife. The phrase, “I want a wife who” is used in the beginning of each sentence. The numerous examples of anaphoras made the entire essay take the form of a grocery list that hangs on a refrigerator. The impersonalness of the text makes it seem as if being a wife is a job, with daily chores, and no appreciation waiting on the other end. Not only is repetition used within a paragraph, it is also used when comparing that same paragraph with another. For example, paragraph three lists every step and action that a wife should take in order to satisfy the needs of her kids. Similarly, in paragraph four, Syfers takes on the same list of actions and applies them to satisfy the husband’s needs. Through the use of repetition it is apparent that Syfers formatted her writing as a list of expected tasks, formulated by a husband, meant to be carried out by his
In the short story ?Why I want a wife? by Judy Brady, she goes into detail what being a wife is like. The tedious details of day to day activities, the strain and hard work of being a ?good wife?, and the unappreciated service a wife must perform to be accepted by her husband. This story made me feel like, the author
Marriage is a concept that society takes extremely inaccurately. It is not something one can fall back from. Once someone enter it there is no way back. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” she tells the story of Delia, a washerwoman whom Sykes, her husband, mistreats while he ventures around with other women and later attempts to kill Delia to open a way for a second marriage with one of his mistresses. By looking at “Sweat” through the feminist and historical lens Hurston illustrates the idea of a sexist society full of men exploiting and breaking down women until men dispose of them.
American woman is, to speak plainly, too often physically unfit for her duties as woman, and is perhaps of all civilized females the least qualified to undertake those weightier tasks which tax so heavily the nervous system of man. She is not fairly up to what nature asks from her as wife and mother. How will she sustain herself under the pressure of those yet more exacting duties which nowadays she is eager to share with the man? (Mitchell 141)
It is safe to say that the box next to the “boring, monotone, never-ending lecture” has been checked off more than once. Without the use of rhetorical strategies, the world would be left with nothing but boring, uniform literature. This would leave readers feeling the same way one does after a bad lecture. Rhetorical devices not only open one’s imagination but also allows a reader to dig deep into a piece and come out with a better understanding of the author’s intentions. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” is about a family that is going through a tough spot. However, though diction, imagery, pathos, and foreshadowing Guin reveals a deep truth about this family that the reader does not see coming.
Throughout the book, many of the wives note how they wish that they were able to pursue their goals and dreams, but were unable to due to the fact that they had responsibilities as a wife. I think that by putting themselves in a position where they could be viewed as undeserving upper class members who did not work, it not created a dependency to their husbands financially, it portrayed them as women incapable of supporting themselves or their desires in life. “Upper-class women, like other women, experience dissatisfaction with their role as wives–with its expected mode of accommodation, unequal voice in family decisions, and sole responsibility for home and family”
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
But in reality, a male narrator gives a certain sense of understanding to the male audience and society’s understand of the male and females roles and responsibilities in a marriage. Just as men were expected to cut the grass, take out the trash, pay the bills and maintain the household as a whole, women were expected to cook, clean, nurture the children, and be a loving and submissive wife to their husband. The only stipulation required for this exchange of power was to establish a mutual love. In the Victorian age love was all it took for a man to take or alter a woman’s livelihood and
First and foremost, the message that appearances can be deceiving is shown with characterization. A loving housewife waits for her husband to return, with no worries in the world. After a long day of work,
By presenting that Judy is revealing how being a woman is an exhausting experience and how she has a desire to have a wife. As Judy’s article progresses, she reversed her role to a husband as she continues to write from first-person point of view. Judy Brady’s satirical tone of expression exhibits the
This essay will analyze the themes of sexual and class exploitations in the story “The Wife’s Resentment” by Delariviere Manley. By exploring these themes we are able to get an idea of why Manley wrote this story. That is, she hoped to make young women, whether rich or poor, aware of the value of their virtue as well as their rights as married or single women to protect that virtue or honor. By revealing the themes that are presented in the story, we can see what Manley stood for and why she wrote this story in the period she lived in.
Women were regard as a second class of people. They had neither legal right nor respect from their male counterparts. When the narrator's husband, John, a physician, placed the narrator in the horrid room with yellow wallpaper, and bed-rested, he claimed that he knew what is best for his wife. The narrator had no choice but to obey her husband since her brother, who was a male physician, was convinced by her husband's theory. "So I take phosphates of phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics, and air and exercise, and journeys, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again" (pg277). Male domination is clearly seen here as the males claimed that their decision was always the right choice. "I thought it was a good time to talk, so I told him that I really was not gaining here, and that I wished he would take me away"(pg283). The narrator tried to convince her husband to change his treatment because she thought that her husband's prescription was not working for her, instead her husband asked her to go to sleep. Her husband's ignorance clearly shows that even the narrator herself had no power over her own health. She just simply said, "But ...
The 19th century was a time when middle to upper-middle class women became ornamental. Their lives revolved around image, their husbands, and as much idleness as their husbands wealth could afford them(iii). There were servants to tend to the home and servants to tend to children. An afternoon tea and shopping expedition was an acceptable, even proper, way to spend ones day as a lady. The husband in The Yellow Wallpaper cannot see why his wife should be stressed or nervous. He tells her that she is allowing her mind to get carried away and that that is her sole problem. Her illness reflects directly on him as both her husband and her doctor adding to her overwhelming sense of anguish.
However, the lives of these women were not as easy as it may have seemed. In retrospect, their roles, although seemingly wonderful, were actually oppressive. They were taught to be obedient and loyal to their husbands . Their opinions were devalued, and they were thought of as nothing more than an accessory to their husbands.
According to Mill, men wanted women to tend to their needs without forcing them. A wife who seemed to be forced to serve their husband ...
Within these marriages, readers get a sense of how education plays an important role in a successful marriage, as this fulfills both of their dreams of personal identity. Although women in the nineteenth century were viewed to be superior wives and mothers, manage the household, and perform domestic tasks, it was important for women to become educated as “an education was supposed to enable these girls to become successful women in society” (Leigh 117). Women were not meant to be “trained” in some way to become good wives, but needed to be formally educated in order to be a successful wife and