The Stepford Wives

Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of sexual activity and psychological horror.

“The women she had met in the past few days, the ones in the nearby houses, were pleasant and helpful enough, but they seemed completely absorbed in their household duties. Maybe when she got to know them better she would find they had farther-reaching concerns.”

In the novel’s expository scene, Joanna is visited by a welcoming lady who asks her questions about her family’s history. Joanna finds the experience disconcerting, as it seems that the women of Stepford are one-dimensional people with little culture, intelligence, or worldly concerns. Joanna’s early encounters with the women of Stepford foreshadow the truth revealed later, that they are robots, no longer human.

“You look reborn.”

After Joanna takes a refreshing shower and ties her hair back, she looks relaxed and beautiful, and when Walter sees her, he pays her this compliment. His statement foreshadows the future transformation that Joanna undergoes when her personality and voice are implanted into an animatronic robot, and she is killed. When the Stepford wives are finally replaced, it is as if they are being reborn as a version of themselves that is more appealing to their husbands.

“She wished—that they would be happy in Stepford. That Pete and Kim would do well in school, and that she and Walter would find good friends and fulfilment.”

Joanna’s wish seems to be coming true at first, as she makes friends with Bobbie and Charmaine and experiences some success with her photographs, but the plot soon turns in the other direction, as the time of her replacement draws closer. By the time Joanna is dissatisfied enough to leave Stepford, it is too late.