9.5.11: Irving's "The Wife"

     Washington Irving’s work The Wife paints a picture of the duties of a wife during this time period, and gives a kind of hidden instruction of how the ideal wife should relate to her husband.

      Irving refers to the woman as “the softer sex,” and “soft and tender.” However, he also emphasizes that the ideal wife, while feminine, is able to “be the comforter and supporter of her husband” when he needs encouragement or uplifting. He gives his readers the visual of a vine twisted around an oak tree, the vine being the woman and the tree representing her husband. In this analogy, the vine depends on the tree, just was the wife is dependent on her husband, but she also gently supports him at the same time.

      Irving personifies this analogy by telling the story of a friend and his wife who went through some financial troubles and had to being to live a much more frugal lifestyle. The husband was heartbroken that he would not be able to provide his wife with the fine things that she was used to having, but his wife was actually extremely supportive and found happiness in their bleak situation, which in turn made her husband happy. I feel as though this story not only gives a glimpse of a woman’s life during this time period, but also could have been written possibly as an example for young women at the time to read and practice in their own lives. Could Irving have known that women would want to read such a touching story and included a hidden life lesson?