I want a wife, Judy Brady Analysis

I want a wife Judy Brady analysis summarizes an essay that Judy Brady wrote for the feminist movement magazine’s inaugural issue Ms in 1971. It analyzes the roles of the husband and wife in a marriage to persuade women how men had taken advantage of the duties of a housewife in the home in a sarcastic tone.

Judy Brady’s article speaks about the different roles of a wife in the home compared to other women, and how she is supposed to be helpful and attend to the husband’s and the children’s demands in the house. The essay’s main idea is to give the men’s perception of the woman according to the traditional principles of male dominance and female submissiveness. The genre of the essay could be classified as satirical prose.

It explains how society and men view women as lesser than men by being the caregiver and stress reliever. Judy Brady’s essay clearly uses satire to portray chauvinism and the exploitation of women by their male counterparts.

Analysis of I want a wife by Judy Brady.

The first paragraph of Judy Brady’s article starts by stating;

“I belong to the classification of people known as wives. I am a wife. And not altogether incidentally, I am a mother”.

Judy does this to establish herself as the authority of discussion and give a voice to mothers and wives worldwide. She describes the unrealistic expectations of men by exaggerating the wants and needs that married women should do for their husbands.

Wife Analysis

Judy’s desired wife’s tasks included:

• A wife who supports the husband financially so that they can go back to school.
• A wife who can keep track of doctor and dentist appointments.
• One who takes care of the children, including feeding them and nurturing them, keeping them clean, washing their clothes clean, taking care of their schooling, and social life.
• A wife who can keep the house clean and picks up after the husband.
• A wife who can make sure that the husband’s demands are met but does not demand attention from him when he is not in the mood.
• Takes care of babysitting arrangements if she is stepping out for work.
• A wife who does not bother the husband with complaints about the wife’s duties.
• A wife who is sensitive to the husband’s sexual needs and minimizes too much stress in his life.
• One who sees to it that the husband’s personal things are kept where the husband can easily find them when he needs them.
• A wife who cooks a special meal for the husband serves them pleasantly and does the washing after he is done eating in their everyday life.

• A wife who does the menus, and does grocery shopping in the house.
• A wife who will take care of social details of the husband’s life by preparing the meals for his guests, serving his guests, and making sure they are entertained.

Judy wanted to put across that housewives were expected to do all these things, but no one ever expected the man to perform any of these tasks. I want a wife Judy Brady analysis wished to answer the question “Why” was all this happening to the wife and not the husband.

Brady shows that having a wife will make life easier for the husband. This will enable him to do what he wants to do without family life’s restrictions on trying to maintain the home. She emphasizes that the wife’s roles are unfair compared to the husband’s roles since there is inequality.

Writing Styles in I want a Wife Analysis of Married Men.

In Judy Brady’s article, she explains why she wants a wife. She uses humor to teach the unmarried men and women the role of the traditional married woman in a marriage. She also wishes she had someone who could perform the duties given to her by the conventional ideals of a good wife. Below are some of the writing styles she uses to portray her message to the reader;

Ethos

Ethos is demonstrated in the article by the credibility of the author. She does this in the first paragraph by stating that she belongs in the class of wives and mothers. She gives many first-hand details on her experience as both mother and wife. This gives her a lot of credibility as she narrates her experiences.

Logos

In this article, logos are used to state all the duties a wife is supposed to perform for her husband. She uses it to show that women were expected to do so much, and to support her argument, she lists down the duties that wives were supposed to perform for their husbands.

Pathos

Brady uses pathos to answer the question “Why I want a wife” to her audience. In the article, she finally answers it by concluding, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” at the end. She does this to show that she has comfortably answered the question that she had started asking herself at the beginning of the essay.

Repetition

Repetition is used in the entire essay to get the reader’s attention and get her points across. She constantly repeats what she wants in a wife and what she wants taken care of for her. Here is a quote from the essay to show this style of writing;

“I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about wife duties.”

Brady boldly expresses that husbands demand the wife to take care of them while doing nothing. This includes being supported financially, doing household work, and taking care of the children. The line “I want a wife…..” is repeated a lot of times in the essay to list the different jobs that the wife does in the house.

She also uses “I” the entire essay to show the selfishness of the husband’s point of view. The gender roles in this classic piece are not balanced since equal rights are not put in place for both the husbands and wives to perform.

Irony

In the analysis of I want a wife, Judy uses irony in the entire essay to show humor. It is used to expand judgment on how far husbands can go to put women in their proper place in society. From the essay’s title, the male audience would think that the author is a man, but it is actually a woman.

The irony is strategically used to demonstrate that all men are looking for a faultless wife who is perfect in every aspect of being a wife and a mother. They are selfish and imagine a wife who will make their life trouble-free since she will be there to fix every wrong thing that goes on in their lives.

Imagery

Imageries are used to put a picture in the reader’s mind. Judy uses imagery to explain the chores that wives are expected to perform for their husbands. She does this to make it clear and help the reader to understand what husbands expect from their wives. This allows the one reading to feel that they can relate to the figurative language that the author used. I want a wife also helps the audience to understand what Judy is going through personally as she lists the duties she is expected to perform by her husband.

Selfishness and Sexist

The analysis of I want a wife lists many jobs that a wife is expected to perform by everyone in the society to belong. Brady plays a role of a mother and a wife by repeating the same jobs every day for her husband and children. She now seems sick of the jobs and therefore asks for a wife who will help her perform these duties as she performs for her family.

Take Away on Being a Wife and not Altogether Incidentally a Mother

I want a wife Judy Brady analysis takes the readers into the mind of Judy Brady as she was writing this perfect essay. It had a humorous effect on its audience and the related topics of feminism at the time it was written were booming all over America. The readers were surprised to read such a unique perspective on an issue that was just gaining momentum since a woman was the one asking for a wife.

I want a wife is the right essay since it explained in detail the duties that a wife was supposed to perform for her husband and children. This was what was expected of her from her family and society. Wives were expected to do all these chores while husbands went to school and receive an education. Professional writers would argue that these double standards in the home created inequality in the household by putting men to be superior to women.

Judy used various rhetorical writing styles to help put her points across. Styles like repetition, irony, imagery, pathos, and logos are used to give details about the different duties that women were given. I want a wife essay suddenly occurred and created a lot of talk in the feminist movement because of the unequal rights that women were subjected to by their male counterparts in marriage.

Judy concludes her article by stating “God who wouldn’t want a wife” which gives the audience a chance to imagine how good life would be if everyone had a wife. In the article, Brady connects to the emotions of the wife as she lists the different duties that they perform in their marriages. She appeals to the largest audience she has as she states all these duties while keeping in mind, not all wives perform all the duties she lists. The tone of the article is casual, ironic, and sarcastic.

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