Meaning & Analysis
The most valuable asset a man can possess in his home is his deceased wife, suggesting her death brings a greater benefit, particularly material, than her life did.
Insights
Cynical Financial Gain
The proverb is a cynical metaphor for marriage as a purely economic transaction. A wife's death represents the final, most profitable stage of the 'investment', where the husband gains full control over her dowry and property without the ongoing 'cost' of her maintenance.
Liberation from Perceived Burden
Metaphorically, the wife is seen as a domestic or emotional liability. Her death symbolizes the husband's liberation from the perceived burdens and constraints of marriage, granting him freedom and control.
Dehumanization and Misogyny
The proverb serves as a powerful expression of institutionalized misogyny, reducing a woman to an object ('goods'). Her ultimate worth is realized only when her personhood is erased, leaving behind only her material value.
Marriage as an Economic Unit
This proverb provides a stark window into the economic realities of marriage in early modern Europe, where dowries and inheritances meant a wife's death could be a significant financial boon for her husband. The cross-reference comparing the death of wives to the 'life of sheep' explicitly frames women as a form of livestock, whose primary value is economic.
Patriarchal Power Dynamics
The saying is a brutal expression of a patriarchal worldview where a woman's value is defined solely by her utility to her husband. Her death is not a personal loss but the acquisition of an 'asset'—her property or dowry—free from the perceived liability of her existence.
Subversive Social Commentary
As a piece of folk wisdom, the proverb functions as a form of dark, cynical humor, likely used to voice marital dissatisfaction or economic anxiety in a socially transgressive way. It exposes underlying societal resentments by framing a tragic event as a desirable outcome.
Rhetorical Devices
Hyperbole
The statement uses shocking exaggeration to underscore its cynical point, framing the ultimate personal tragedy as the ultimate financial gain.
Metaphor
The core of the proverb is a dehumanizing metaphor that equates a woman with 'goods' or chattel, reducing her from a person to a possession.
Irony
The proverb's power lies in its profound situational irony, completely inverting the expected emotional response to a spouse's death and presenting it as a moment of good fortune.
Transcription
Quotations
The wife of him whom God will helpe soone dyes.
There's thriving in wiving: for when we bury Wives by half-dozens, the money makes merry.
(A dead wife under the table is).
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.