The Stepford Wives story
A photographer and young mother begins to suspect that the frighteningly submissive housewives in her new idyllic Connecticut neighborhood may be robots created by their husbands. It is based on the 1972 Ira Levin novel of the same name.
11 total · 8 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| android | major | The men of Stepford were replacing their wives with submissive android replicas. |
| disintegrating romantic relationship | major | Joanna's relationship slowly broke down as he became more and more involved in the clandestine Stepford Men's Association. |
| friendship | major | Bobbie Markowe befriended Joanna, who was new in town and didn't know anybody. |
| husband and wife | major | The story followed the Eberhart's as the moved from New York City to the strange town Stepford with their two young children. |
| sexism in society | major | Walter Eberhart joined an elite men only club Stepford. Joanna and her friend Bobbie tried to raise awareness among the other women in Stepford that it was sexist to have a such a club, and they tried to form a counter women only club. More generally, the men of Stepford preferred for women to be obedient housewives and went about doing in their wives and replacing them with just such replicas. |
| the battle of the sexes | major | The men of Stepford were unanimous in the conviction that the natural order of things was for women to be in the home. |
| the qualities of a good wife | major | The men of Stepford were replacing their wives with submissive android replicas. |
| what if people around me started behaving strangely one by one | major | Joanna watched the Stepford women turn into obedient drones for their husbands and worried that the same was ultimately in store for her. |
| dealing with children | minor | Walter became exasperated with having to entertain seven kids at his house. |
| questioning one's sanity | minor | Joanna mused to a female psychiatrist that she might be crazy to think that the men of Stepford were somehow changing their wives into submissive automaton-like drones, but she was still convinced it was happening all the same. |