Are The Stepford Wives Really Robots

I just finished ready The Stepford Wives and I have to say that it is very thought provoking. I will go ahead and say there will be spoilers in this post so if you haven’t finished the book or watched any of the movies, stop reading now.

So, we know that Joanna is very worried about the other wives in Stepford. So much so that she is willing to leave her husband and kids behind to move away before she gets turned into a “Stepford Wife” or what she thinks is a robot. She has seen, time and again, one of the wives in the town completely change their outlook on life to only please their husband.

At the end of the book, Joanna goes in to Bobbie’s kitchen to see if Bobbie will bleed. The last we find out, related to this scene, is that Bobbie has a knife and we fade to black. Does Bobbie killed Joanna and the Men’s Association then turns her into a robot? Does Bobbie cut herself and Joanna realizes she is being crazy? Does this cause her to become submissive to her husband Walter?

The epilogue of the book has Joanna being the submissive wife she never wanted to be. So, did the Men’s Association turn her into this robot type wife? Did she come to her senses and realize she was being crazy and felt terrible for her husband and kids?

This is a psychological thriller that leaves a lot of stones unturned. In my opinion, Joanna finds out that Bobbie simply wanted to make her husband happy.  She, like all the other wives previously, went crazy thinking everyone was “robotic”. She felt so bad that she knew she had to make it up to her husband. The only way to do this was to become completely submissive. This happens all the time in the real world.

So, what did happen in that kitchen? Did Bobbie stab her old friend Joanna? Is it possible that it was all part of the plan to make certain that Joanna did turn into a robot wife for her husband?

If you have seen the movies, let me know how they ended. I read up that the newest one (2004) ended with a happy ending which means it did not end with Joanna and Bobbie in the kitchen with Bobbie holding a knife. Maybe I will get around to it sometime. In the meantime, I better go clean and cook supper…