Napoleon In Rags...

In 1971, Judy Brady wrote a controversial essay for a feminist publication to illustrate the way women were treated during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The essay, titled I Want a Wife, spoke to an entire generation of women who felt oppressed and stifled in a typical Patriarchal society. Brady masterfully employs the use of sarcasm throughout the essay exposing how she feels that men typically exploit their wives and treat them little better than indentured servants. She relates the many chores and responsibilities wives are expected to tend to and expresses how she would also like to have a servant to handle all of those tasks and therefore tells the audience that she too wants a wife. Through sarcasm the author exposes the way modern man has corrupted the meaning of the word wife and therefore does not imply that she herself is a lesbian since the term wife has become more similar to domestic help than spouse (Brady).

To further connect with her audience, the author employs the use of the rhetorical triangle to convey her message. The rhetorical triangle refers to the different modes of persuasion used to express a speaker’s appeal to his or her intended audience. The three most prevalent modes of rhetoric as outlined by Aristotle include ethos, logos, and pathos.

Ethos is best described as an appeal to the authority of the presenter; in this case the author displays herself as a knowledgeable figure in the feminist movement. Ethos is most effectively used as a means of appealing to a person’s ethics or character. Brady discusses the ethical treatment of women by men in 1950’s society (Brady).

Pathos is known as an appeal to the audience’s emotions. In the essay, Brady exposes the unfair treatment of women and how men expect them to keep a clean home, tend to the children, cook delicious meals, wait on them hand and foot, and generally take care of any issues that may arise out of o domestic nature without once complaining or pestering their husbands. Brady’s essay is an example of a literary conceit, while she claims that she, as a woman would indeed like to have a wife, she is shocking the readers into realizing how poorly wives are treated and neglected to the point that they are no longer seen as human, but as subhuman slaves who subordinate themselves without reproach (Brady).

Logos, is the term applied to the use of logical appeal in terms of persuasion. Facts, statistics, and precedents are often used in the logos method to support the author’s claims and to lend credence or gravity to the author. Although logos can enhance a speaker’s ethos, by establishing the author as a qualified speaker on a certain subject it can also be misused by misrepresenting data to confuse or distract an audience.  Brady expresses to the audience the lengthy list of chores that wives are expected to accomplish to illustrate how unfair and overwhelming being a wife must be. It is a ploy to sway the audience’s opinion in favor of the poor downtrodden and exploited subservient women in society (Brady).

Brady also employs the use of anaphora, another technique in rhetoric used to emphasis a certain idea or point by repeating a phrase continuously at the beginning of a statement. Brady repeats the phrase “I want a wife,” multiple times in the essay to convey to the audience that a wife is more of a possession than a companion. By referring to a wife as an object rather than a person, Brady exemplifies the sexist and repressive attitude towards women in that particular time period.

         Brady also presents her argument by using strong hyperbole throughout the essay. Hyperbole is a literary device often used to emphasize an idea or argument by using exaggeration to create a strong impression that should not always be taken literally. Brady depicts a very stylized version of a 1950’s housewife, when in reality women as a whole are not as servile and denigrated as her essay illustrates. But by illustrating an extreme disparity between the lifestyles and ambitions of men versus the subservient women they are married to who are expected to support and maintain them she prods the audience into considering the popular social conventions of the time.

Of course everyone at some point in time would like to be remiss in their daily lives, and it would be convenient to have someone else manage all of the more tedious and tiresome details of daily life, Brady’s point essentially, is that no one should be subjugated to the point of servitude. She expresses through sarcasm and irony, that a marriage should ideally be a partnership or symbiosis where both parties benefit and not a situation in which only one member succeeds to the detriment of the other (Brady).  

Works Cited

Brady, Judy. “I Want A Wife.” Ms. 1972. Print.