My Problem With Her Anger Summary

When most people get married, they go into the marriage with the expectations and hopes that everything will go as planned, that they will always get along, and that the responsibilities will be evenly divided between both spouses. And for two working spouses who have children, they share the expectation that no one parent will be more of a caretaker than the other. Eric Bartels, a feature writer for the Portland Tribune in Portland, Oregon, feels as if he has personal experience as to what it is like to be on the receiving end of his wife’s irrational—or at least in his eyes—anger. Bartels informs his readers of the anger his wife projects

Tannen effectively opens with an anecdote about how she was at a gathering for a women’s group and men were invited. She talks about how one guy was very talkative, offering ideas and telling stories, while his wife was sitting in silence. Towards the end of the evening Tannen commented that “women frequently complain that their husbands don’t talk to them”. The man quickly agreed with Tannen and admitted that his wife was the talker in their family and if it weren’t for

Television psychologists and pop culture self-help gurus tell us that marriage is hard work; marriage is compromise; marriage is a choice between being right, and being happy. All of these statements are true. What these experts don’t tell us, however, is that marriage is also about putting on blinders, or looking on the bright side, or one of a hundred other trite phrases to explain the art of self-deception. In marriage, there are times when we may find it necessary to look the other way from our spouse’s faults or indiscretions, in the interest of self-preservation. For if we examine these problems too closely, our darkest, most secret fears may come true. Therefore, it can seem easier to focus on the positive. In her poem “Surprise,” Jane Kenyon uses denial, selective perception, and fear of betrayal to illustrate the self-deception that can occur in marriage.

What he is seeking from his wife symbolizes how society floods people with unattainable expectations around every aspect of life, which causes us to be unsatisfied with the inner beauty and strength that is already contained within. However, it is the rationalization of his behavior, by his wife, that further accelerates his need to act as

Mrs. Maloney constantly tried to please her husband with dinner and each time he forcefully declined. Mr. Maloney treated his wife as though she was an animal who lacked obedience and needed to be commanded. Mrs. Maloney, being the “ideal” housewife, never made a point to call attention to the rude and overbearing power held over her by her husband. She chose instead to keep her emotions private so that she could continue to please her husband. The lack of freedom given to her creates a need to become independent and slowly beings to drive her mad.

Edelman explains how she became the holder of household responsibilities, due to the fact that her husband dedicated his time towards work with, “one (work) week (coming) in at ninety-two hours” (Edelman PG). She emphasizes how she was forced to pick up the slack so that her daughter would not be “functionally orphaned” (Edelman PG). By juxtaposing her overwhelming presence in her household with her husband’s absence, one can understand her frustration from the duties she had to adopt. Because she provides concrete reasons for her emotions, she is able to address problems in her marriage, without isolating her audience with overly emotional diction and little reasoning in her argument. While Edelman is able to justify her feelings of anger from her marriage, Bartels is less effective as his primary source of support is based in his emotional diction. He claims that the “negativity” that stemmed from the overwhelming responsibilities marriage and parenthood presents, “ threaten(ed) to grind (his) spirit into dust” (Bartels 59). Instead of using examples of the negativity or concrete causes of it, as Edelman provided, Bartels expects the readers to connect simply to the intensity of the pressure rather than the pressure

Wives are pretty spectacular aren’t they? Many women from the 70’s probably thought so, but the men? Did they appreciate what their spouses were doing for them? Some felt they didn’t. One of those women was Judy Syfers, and she decided that the only way to tell her husband, and all husbands, how underappreciated wives were was to write about it in her piece “Why I Want a Wife.” Syfers’ crafty use of irony and repetition creates her favorable, yet satirical, standpoint on why wives are so outstanding.

A cynical tone is used conveyed through irony in syntax, diction, and a false persona. Her cynical tone is derived from the double standard of men in a male dominate society. As the article begins Brady informs the audience " I am a Wife" along with the reasoning behind her argument. With the intent to exemplify the unequal standards of men to women and to tell the reader that this article comes from the opinion and experiences as a wife and a mother. However, ironically throughout the article a male persona is presented. By telling the audience what “I want in a wife”, they lose focus on the fact that this is a wife and mother expressing her thoughts. All the expectations that Brady expresses are expectations of a husband. In a predominantly

Among many of the narrator’s flaws, one that certainly comes to mind is his complete lack of care towards his 2nd wife. “I loathed her with a hatred belonging more to demon than to man”. This quote demonstrates his feeling towards the way he was towards his second wife was atrocious, and in our eyes unforgivable. He first gets into this new marriage for no other apparent reason other than her being very much the opposite of his first wife, for whom he truly loved. This contrast between the two wives manifests itself in ugly ways as he quickly learns that neither of them love each other. In the story the narrator states the wife’s feelings towards his anger; “That my wife dreaded the fierce moodiness of my temper --that she shunned me and loved me but little”. This quote demonstrates the conflict created when he remarried because he is constantly longing for his first wife, making the opposites of this new wife trigger points for his outbursts. In the end it was this desire for his

Furthermore, Brady demonstrates how wives can obviously be discarded by heartless, abominable creatures called husbands, “If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one.” Women biasness in a marriage clearly is existent, especially when men have the upper hand in the relationship. It is infuriating that women could easily be thrown

Women in the 1970’s role in marriage was almost that of a slave. Women of that era were tired of this oppression and protested against the wife’s stereotypical view among men and demanded gender equality. Women voiced their vexations through the media in a subtle way to rally other supporters of women’s rights. The article published in Ms. Magazine “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady uses pathos as an effective literary device to make the audience feel a certain way with the use of selfishness.

Status and rights are expected to be equal in American households; however, Judy Brady expresses her frustration in the sarcastic essay, “I Want a Wife.” As a well known feminist and activist, Brady travelled the world committed to fight for social justice. Being a housewife and raising two daughters was taking a toll on Brady, for she was set with high expectations from her husband to be the perfect wife. Using a different approach to display this inequality, irony, absurdity, and repetition were implemented into the essay for husbands to realize their unrealistic standards. To begin, it’s important to note that Judy Brady speaks from the point of view of a man.

Brady again thrives on the anger she is provoking within her readers. Her irrationality reaches its peak with the claim, “If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life; my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so I am left free” (Brady, 230). This idea that wives, mothers, and women in general are disposable enrages readers.

Life is like balancing a scale, and every shift in life is a function of the display or the demonstration of power. Power is a force that governs everything in life, and out of the many forms of power, anger is one form often dismissed. Anger is a type of power generated from the feeling of inequality aimed at balancing out an uneven scale the victim feels. For a long time in history, women have been unequally treated, discriminated against, and subdued in spite of their attempt to change the gender inequality they experience. Their actions are being characterized as having temper tantrums, excessive rage and often times, mental instability. The anger in women, fueled by gender inequality, is a display of their power. This paper explores the

This excerpt from Live-in Myths, written by Ellen Goodman is a fabulous example of all the different kinds of relationships and their participants who have an excellent sustainability to spend their lives living their own myths. A very evident character that the author uses to bring out the true meaning of this piece is her friend. Her friend is continuously apologizing for her husbands unapologetic behavior, saying, “He is not really like that,” when he most definitely has been this way since the time they first started dating. The woman uses the word “cranky” is order to describe her husband and his actions. But the author uses more serious and much heavier words like, “erratic outbursts of anger”, which helps us understand the nature of