Critical_analysis_on_portrayal_of_women.docx

Critical Analysis on portrayal of women and society during Victorian Era through ‘The Wife’ by Irving. Our culture has been inherently patriarchal which marginalizes women and this has influenced the production and experience of literature. Be it the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of atrocities and sins. Even though the wife reflects distinctly the society which was still under the clutches of patriarchy, Irving elevates the status of women to a source of moral support. The following context speaks in volume about how there comes a phase when the husband is emotionally dependent on his wife. “Suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and support of husband under misfortune.” When Irving through Geoffrey Crayon points out that a married man who falls prey to misfortune has more chances of retrieval than a single man, he proposes how powerful the women are in terms of helping men break free from their calamities. The only woman present in the story has no name which showed that perhaps Irving was of the opinion that women were not worthy of a name which further validates the idea that women had less say in what went on in their lives. There is a clear cut expression of the Victorian husband’s perspective but the conflicts of the wife is least focused on. This is when the title of the story becomes ironic because there is less emphasis on her outlook. Victorian literature has female characters who are defined by male norms and patriarchal ideology. Exclusion of women and their perspectives was not a new thing in those times “Her life”, said he, shall be like a fairy tale.’ As simple as it may seem, it puts forth the idea of how the society dictates the requirements of an ideal husband and prompts him to go to any lengths to achieve that. “He was of a romantic and somewhat serious cast; she was all life and gladness.” legitimizes how the Victorian society had its tentacles around the manners, morals and characters of both genders. Further, it is a direct manifestation of how status, fortune and all the pleasures it can afford sustained marriage and not love or understanding. The wife represents all the domestic values, possibilities and warmth which the husband realizes towards the end. Leslie thinks it will break his wife’s heart to see all the elegances and refinements fade away; When Geoffrey conflicts with this while he makes the statement ‘it does not require a palace to be happy with her” he not only emphasises on the paltriness of Leslie’s thoughts but sends forth a vital message of how true marriage will withstand adversities only to come out strong.

The story renders attributes like sublimity to women and condition men to behave in a certain way. Mutual dependency holds any marriage together and it becomes the central theme around which the story revolves. Even though biology determines sex (whether male or female), it is literature through the influence of culture that dictates gender.