Rhetorical Analysis Of Judy Brady 's I Want A Wife

In an essay by Judy Brady titled “I Want a Wife”, Brady discusses the typical gender dynamics of her time period (the 1970s) and challenges them. She essentially says that women are treated like they are inferior to men and so she says that she wishes or wants someone to fulfill her duties for her just like she does for her husband. This essay shows the struggle to gain equality in this time period and also represents the thoughts that a woman in this time period might have. Not only is the meaning behind this essay significant, but the way in which Brady presents it is also significant and it amplifies and strengthens the argument. This is proven by textual evidence found in the essay itself.

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.

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 “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady, the author argues that the roles of a wife are unfair and more demanding than a husband's, thereby they are treated as lesser than a man. Brady supports her claim by first, introducing herself as a wife, showing her empirical knowledge; secondly, cataloging the unreasonable expectations of a wife; finally ending the essay with an emotional and thought-provoking statement, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” Brady’s purpose is to expose the inequality between the roles of a husband and of a wife in order to show that women do not belong to men and to persuade women to take action and stand up for themselves. Based on when this essay was written and since it is about the impossible expectations of a wife, Brady was writing to feminists in the 1960s in order to rally them to create a change in the way people thought.

He claims that the nation’s teachings of religion and industry encourage American women to rank business over pleasure. The women associate domestic duties with tranquility, honor, and societal acceptance. In general, reason, habit, and education influence the American wife’s commitment to her marriage and family. The writer argues that democratic wives also only marry once their reason has been exercised and matured, unlike aristocratic women (566). Aristocratic law, birth and fortune prevent husbands and wives from forming strong, permanent connections. Yet, the “equality of conditions” that exists in democratic societies reduces marital disorder and encourages women to believe that they are worthy enough to marry their desired partners (568). Moreover, the democratic public more openly accepts the imperfections of the women because they have been thoroughly educated to make choices that benefit the family and state. Democracy teaches and emphasizes the role of both women and men within a democratic marriage prior to the marriage. Aristocratic marriages seek to combine material interests instead of individuals. However, the desire for material goods fails to permanently unite the hearts of the aristocratic husband and wife. In contrast, the democratic husband and wife remain permanently united through mutual tastes and ideas (569). The free will that democratic

In both Judy Brady’s “I want a wife” and Rebecca Curtis’s “Twenty Grand,” the reader is given a glimpse into the lives of two families living in different worlds but sharing many similar situations. Both families in the two-story show the environment that they are living in. Through the author’s use of irony, repetition, and tone, it becomes clear that I feel more sympathy for the mother in the story “Twenty Grand”.

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

As aforementioned, she takes on a feminine masculine persona—she is speaking as a woman having the needs of a man, treating a wife as a different species of woman that she covets. Her tone also does not stray into something violent or passionate; she remains firm and assertive throughout. She simply states what she wants and how she plans on achieving it. This persists throughout the essay until the final line—“My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (Brady 10)—where she directly employs the prior point of her wryness.

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was born in New England in 1852 at the start of the Victorian era. This time during American history women had a certain expected role in society. Their area of influence was known as the domestic sphere. This meant women were in charge of the home, children, and the moral values and eternal souls of the family. Many women during this time were becoming “the single, highly educated, economically autonomous New Woman” (Rosenberg, 245). They were breaking out of the domestic sphere and looking for something more. These women were “eschewing marriage...espoused innovative, often radical, economic and social reforms” (Rosenberg, 245) and were altogether more independent than women before them. Mary Wilkins Freeman

When Brady classifies herself as “a wife and mother” she is automatically labeled with the responsibilities that were enforced by societal beliefs of that era (Brady 229). Women were considered inferior to men and struggled to gain equality. Husband's required too much of their wives as to their physical needs; “I want a wife to keep my house clean.” Their social needs, “When I meet people at school that I like and want to entertain, I want a wife who will have the house clean, will prepare a special meal, serve it to me and my friends, and not interrupt when I talk about things that interest me and my friends.” In addition, their sexual needs, “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 makes sure that I am satisfied.” (Brady 229-230). Women did all these things everyday to please their husbands, although they received no fringe benefit in return. The cultural values that were viewed at this time emphasized the discrimination and equality that Brady desperately wants her audience to

Despite revealing the inequality in society for women, Margaret tries to put an end to the inequality between men and women by describing marriages where both partners are mutually respected. For example, she feels that the ideal marriage is “one of mutual esteem, mutual dependence. Their talk is of business, their affection shows itself by practical kindness” (739). Fuller believes that “mutual esteem” and “mutual dependence” lead to a relationship of equality between a man and woman. She also believes that the couple must not only have mutuality but “affection” in order to maintain equality. In addition, she feels marriages of mutuality and mutuality and affection “meet mind to mind, and a mutual trust is excited, which can buckler them against a million” (742). The author uses this passage to show that

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was awarded the W.D. Howells medal for fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1926. She had been writing for many decades prior to this and made a name for herself in the mid-1880s. She grew up in a home of orthodox Congregationalists and was expected to have very strict behavior. The roles in society for women during this time are key subjects in Freeman’s stories. In, “A New England Nun,” Freeman expresses the pressure and constraints of the obligation put on women to marry.

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

Brady also uses many different forms of writing throughout her essay. One form she uses in her essay is figurative language. She uses this in the second paragraph of her essay when she says, “As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I, too, would like to have a wife” (Brady). After that she begins to explain, with great irony, why she wants a wife, and how wives should act in a seemingly mans world. Brady also uses a form of writing called anaphora throughout her essay.

Judy Brady has strong beliefs in regards to societal standards, specifically the unrealistic pressures forced upon women. Within her essay “I Want a Wife”, Brady emphasizes the ridiculousness of the extremely high standards women are expected to follow without resistance. In order to get the point across clearly, she creates a sarcastic tone through diction and repetition.