Why I Want a Wife
JudyBrady defines a wife more like a husband’s tool. She states that a wife is just a female spouse who takes care of everything starting from the kids, housekeeping duties, her husband and even has time to take care of herself as well. She brings out a wife as being exclusively accountable for the running of the home. She takes care of the children’s appointments with the dentist, prepares meals, washes and irons her husband’s clothes and even goes ahead to type school work (Brady). On the other hand, the society regards a married woman as a man’s partner and companion in marriage.
The main difference between Brandy’s and the society’s definition is the fact that in the society, husband and wife assist one another in the daily chores, while in Brandy’s definition, a wife runs the home single-handedly. Her whole work does not contain a single point where we see a husband being involved to the smallest degree in running the house.
Brady exaggerates several points in order to portray the heavy and irrational responsibilities women are expected to take care of (Pegues). For example, a man expects to have a wife who will look after him. This distorts the line between him, a mature adult, and a child. Another evident exaggeration is where the narrator expects his wife to take care of all the details of his social life. This is irrational and not practical as no one can fully understand another person’s social life. Brady uses these exaggerations to depict the various complicated expectations and responsibilities a wife is expected to fulfill.
Humor is evident in Brady’s work when she asks the question ‘My God, who wouldn’t want to have a wife?’(Brady). This is based on the fact that wives perform all the tasks not only at home, but also act as active shapers of their husbands’ lives. A husband practically does next to nothing but lives the life of a prince thanks to his wife who breaks her back ensuring everything runs smoothly. Some societies seriously expect this from wives, which is not very practical.
From my point of view, Judy Brady seeks to change the society’s expectations and attitude towards women in her work. She says that ‘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 the other one.’ This means that despite the many things the wife may have done for her husband, he is still very independent to make his own choices not taking into account his wife’s feelings or even his responsibilities as a father (Pegues). She seeks to pass across the fact that a wife is entitled to her husband to the same degree a husband is entitled to his wife. From her work the society should realize that a wife also has a life to live and feelings to be taken into consideration.