Literal Analysis of “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady

Literal Analysis of “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady

“I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady was published in 1971 when the feminist movement was a strong political force. The role of women in the home has been a point of great debate since the establishment of the feminist movement up to date. The author of the essay, Brady is a female, and she expresses how the rights of the women are neglected in the community by being overburdened by house responsibilities.  In “I Want a Wife,” Brady focuses on the subject of traditional roles of a wife within the home set up. Brady’s audience is women, and she sheds light on women in the unfairness that exist in the role of women and husbands in a marriage relationship. The topic of the role of women is relevant in the modern world in ensuring that gender equality is attained. Judy Brady uses satire, humor and other literal devices to encompass the notion that wives are slaves to their husbands.

Judy Brady uses literal devices in her essay to make the essay interesting to the audience, and emphasize the key points. The author uses satire in the essay to indicate that with the set standard on the role of a wife, then everyone will want a wife. The satirical tone is used to ridicule society’s standards that are set for women. “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (Brady, 776). The satirical tone is used by the author through the entire essay to show how women rights are neglected in society, which is the theme for the essay. The author repeats the statement “I Want a wife” again and again throughout the essay. The clause is repeatedly used to stress on the role of a wife in the community, which is the major aim of the essay by Judy Brady. Brady also exploits exaggeration in her essay to drive her points to the audience. “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties. But I want a wife who will listen to me” (Brady, 776). The statement shows that the role of the women in the marriage relationship is to listen without complaining whereas the role of the husband is to dictate instructions. The statement exaggerates on the unfairness of the roles between husband and wife to make a point of unfairness more apparent to the reader. The author exploits satirical tone in the essay to reveal how women are misused by their husbands.

In her feminist essay, Judy Brady uses satirical tone through the whole piece to shed light on how some husbands mistreat their wives by assigning them excess extra housework. According to the essay, wives should do all the housework without any support from the husband or house helps (Beck, 117). The wife is expected to keep the house clean, clean the children, to feed the children, and to take care of the children medical needs. Also, the author highlights that the wife is responsible for providing all the needs of the children. “Needless to say, my wife will arrange and pay for the care of the children while my wife is working” (Brady, 775). The statement shows how wives are taken as slaves by their husbands by being forced to perform all the house activities that include taking care of the children, and at the same time working. Since the publishing of the essay, the essay remains significant to modern society as the housework is burdening the wives in marriage The author of the essay states how women are forced to miss their jobs so that they perform physical house activities. “My wife can arrange to lose time at work and not the job.” The author states that she cannot miss her class, but her wife should miss some job time to take care of the children and some other home activities. The author uses these illustrations to indicate how wives are misused in the community by being burdened with all the family’s responsibilities. Judy Brady in her essay uses diction to ensure that the role of women in the community is properly understood by her audience.

The author uses diction in the essay to avoid complex jargon so that the importance of feminism movement is clearly understood by her audience. The main aim of Judy’s essay was to shed some light to her audience who were the women on how their husbands were misusing them due to lack of strong feminism movements. The author shows how a lack of organizations to advocate for the rights of the female gender affects the economy of a society. The economy of the country depends on how the community works fair in their jobs. Judy shows how wives are forced to miss their jobs so that they can perform other house daily chores. “My wife can arrange to lose time at work and not the job” (Brady, 775. The author uses this statement to show how husbands overload their wives with house chores such that they cannot make an appearance at workplaces, which affects the economy if the country. Also, the author in her essay “Why I Want a Wife” shows how husbands violated the rights of the women in the society where feminism movements do not exist. The author reveals how wives in the community are expected to work so hard to ensure the comfort of their husbands who do not even respect the wives. In the essay, the author shows how husbands expect their wives to be faithful. “I want a wife who will remain sexually faithful to me so that I do not have to clutter up my intellectual life with jealousness.”  In the other hand, the husbands do not expect their wives to bother about their social lives. “I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one.” The statements show how women are treated as minors in the community where they do not have any say rather than to obey what their husbands say.  Feminism movements are essential in ensuring that the rights of women in the community are obeyed. The author uses statements and illustrations in the essay “Why I Want a Wife” to show how a lack of feminism movements crates gender inequality in the community. The author uses different paragraphs to separate her ideas on how women are being mistreated in society.

In the essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady, the author organizes her about the role of women by use of paragraphs. Each paragraph in the essay addresses a specific idea about the role of wives in a marriage set-up. Brady uses a topic sentence at the start of each paragraph, which helps her audience to know the issue being addressed in each paragraph. The first sentence in each paragraph declares the topic of the paragraph. Paragraph one discusses how wives support those who are dependent upon them. Brady narrates that she wants a wife who will be able to provide all the needs of her children. In the second paragraph, the author discusses how the wife should take care of the family’s physical needs. The topic sentence of the second paragraph is “I Want a wife who will take care of my physical needs” (Brady, 776) The author then goes ahead to discuss the physical needs that she expects her wife to take care. In paragraph four, the essay states how the wife should react toward the social life of the author. The author then goes ahead to discuss in the sexual needs she requires from the wife. Therefore, Judy Brady uses different paragraphs to discuss her ideas towards the role of the wives in the community. The author uses satire, repetition and other literal devices in the essay “I Want a Wife” to emphasize the key points.

In summary, the essay “I Want a Wife” was published in 1971 when the feminist movement had become a strong political force. The author of the essay, Judy Brady, played an important role in 1960’s feminism movement. The aim of the essay was to show women the need for feminism movements by highlighting how the rights of women are being neglected. In the essay, Judy Brady shows how the rights of women are neglected by being overburdened by all the responsibilities of the family. Satire, repetition, and exaggeration are literal devices used in the essay to emphasize the notion that wives are slaves to their husbands. The clause “I want a wife” is repeatedly used in the essay to emphasize the duties expected on wives. The author uses satirical tone in her essay to show unfairness that exists in the division of home roles between wives and husbands.