Satire is the use of ridicule or sarcasm to deliberately mock something. 'Why I want a wife' is a satirical piece of writing, mocking the contextual stereotype of wives at the time.
At the beginning of the text, the author, Judy Syfers, uses satire to poke fun at the idea of the apparently dreary lives that wives at that time led. Syfer writes "As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening". This is clearly untrue and used for satirical effect. The present tense verb 'ironing' connotes the almost never ending amount of housework done by the wives at the time.
The use of satire is very important in this text as it shows Syfers attitude towards the stereotype and her strong disagreement with the idea that as soon as a woman marries, she must give up everything to fit in with the conventional way of life.
Do you think that it is the tense of the word 'ironing' that is most important to comment on and which carries the satire?
ReplyDelete