Five.

Judy Brady's essay "I Want a Wife" shows how nice it appears to be to have a "wife." The essay is very much from a woman's perspective, and therefore gives a single side of the story. It makes a having a wife sound like a ticket to the easy life. Just to clarify I'm not saying that having a wife isn't a ticket to the easy life - in some ways it is. But the essay fails to address the problems that can come with having a wife. If having a wife was such a good thing, then why is there about a 50% divorce rate in America? I'm not claiming that divorces are always the fault of a wife, I'm sure husbands are equally or more responsible. However the main reason I don't like this essay is that it is very one sided. Even if the whole thing was meant to be sarcasm, which she alludes to at the end with "My God, who wouldn't want a wife," it still promotes a major stereotype. If someone unfamiliar with american culture read this and took as true fact, they would be in for a surprise.

Jason wasn't a very good husband. He let Medea take care of things, well he fell in love with princess. The one nice thing about this essay is that it doesn't go the extra step and bash the husband. Well it does elude to the husband being bad, it doesn't go to far. Therefore, Medea can't relate to it in that respect. But she did think of herself as a good wife. She took care of the children and loved Jason. She did many of the things the essay classified as being a good wife. But she also showed the bad side of "wives." She became jealous and upset, and then did things that should never have been done. Even if Jason did bad things to her, she shouldn't have reacted how she did. Perhaps the story of Medea is in fact a better version of "I Want a Wife" because it gives insight about bad things that can also come with having a wife.