Blog #3 Question 1

I actually really likes Irving's short story "The Wife". When I first began to read this piece I thought that it was going to be just another piece about how a woman is nothing without her man or how the mans success is all that matters as so many stories from this time would depict. But this story rather showed how a woman is such support for a man even when he is not flourishing as he should. The couple in this story demonstrated a marriage based on love as she embraces her husband in relief in finding out that all that was bothering him was his fears of not being able to support the family. She showered him with love and compassion and this showed how the marriage was about love and support, not about power and convenience. I think this piece might have been written during a pivotal time in American history when marriage was developing more into the romantic love model rather than the convenience and child bearing model. The story was enjoyable for me to read as I was pleasantly surprised of the fact that it wasn't just another tail of how a woman is nothing without her man, but rather a man is nothing without the support and graces of a woman.