Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

Anna FunderNonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

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Index of Terms

Domesticity

Domesticity generally refers to the sphere of life that occurs in the home. While the word generally carries positive connotations, Anna Funder shows that an idyllic picture of domesticity ignores the very real labor of the women who are charged with maintaining the domestic sphere. She says that “a woman can be buried by domesticity” (23), and that is partially what happens to Eileen. The other specific use of domesticity is in reference to men and comes from Cyril Connolly, and English literary critic and writer, who claims that a new child supposedly stunts a writer’s creativity; as Funder observes, “Connolly is saying that domesticity curtails a man’s freedom […] and so it deadens his creativity” (350). A child, therefore, may require a man to attend more closely to the domestic harmony of his household—which, in Connolly’s perspective, hinders the man’s ability to pursue professional or creative aims. The subtext of this discussion is that the woman’s desire to pursue creative aims is never offered as an option, because she is automatically required to attend to the duties of domesticity.

Doublethink

George Orwell created this term in his novel 1984. In the novel, the term refers to the aim of propaganda to compel audiences to simultaneously hold two contradictory beliefs. Funder references doublethink 11 times in Wifedom. She uses the term to refer to the effect of patriarchy on the minds of men—to the detriment of the lives of women. The fundamental doublethink of patriarchy is that women must be seen by both genders as simultaneously human and less-than-human in order to protect men from the guilt associated with treating women badly. Importantly, Funder consciously regards Orwell himself by using a kind of doublethink; he is simultaneously the great mind who defined and explained the danger of doublethink and a constant practitioner of doublethink in his mistreatment of his wife.

Counter-Fiction

Funder subtitles the first part of Wifedom “a counterfiction” and follows this term by asserting that she initially considered writing a historical novel, “a counterfiction to the one in the biographies” (21). The initial idea was to create a fiction in contrast to the existing narrative of Eileen’s life—the one in which she barely existed. However, the book ends up becoming a way of countering the fictions involved not just in the stories and omissions of Eileen’s life, but in the fictions that have been created and reinforced by patriarchal culture.

Passive Voice

Passive voice is a grammatical term that refers to sentences in which the subject is acted upon instead of acting. Funder uses this grammatical terminology and the actual grammatical event to describe the erasure of women, asserting that “the actions of women are omitted by using the passive voice” (60). Notably, this rhetorical effect occurs in the biographies of Orwell as well as in Orwell’s own work, as Funder repeatedly proves. Whenever Eileen accomplishes something important—most notably the massive risk she takes in getting passports approved by the police in Barcelona—Orwell and others employ the passive voice rather than naming her as the hero of the event. Funder introduces this idea at the beginning of the book and demonstrates whenever it applies.

Patriarchy

The word patriarchy refers to a society in which men hold the political, financial, and cultural power and women are subjugated and relegated to a second-class position. For a significant portion of history, the vast majority of human societies have unquestionably been organized as patriarchies. Funder argues that even after the major gains of the 20th and 21st centuries, the patriarchal systems remain in place function and constantly and subtly work to devalue women, women’s labor, and women’s actions. Patriarchal systems also function to protect men who damage women’s reputations or physically assault women; they also ignore the achievements and contributions of women. Funder describes patriarchy as “a fiction in which all the main characters are male, and the world is seen from their point of view” (60). She writes Wifedom in part to expose that fiction and to present a portrait of women’s contributions that reclaims the narrative from the subtle and overt forces of patriarchy.