Meaning & Analysis
The proverb asserts that two things are always present and unavoidable in life: a bad year (of misfortune or poor harvests) and a wife.
Insights
Inescapable Burdens
The proverb metaphorically equates the natural and unavoidable hardship of an 'ill year' with the perceived domestic burden of having a wife, suggesting that both are inescapable and constant sources of trouble in a man's life.
Cynical View of Marriage
It serves as a cynical commentary on the institution of marriage from a patriarchal viewpoint, implying that a wife, like a bad year, is a perpetual and guaranteed source of complaint or difficulty.
Duality of Life's Struggles
The pairing of these two elements suggests a life defined by dual struggles: the public, economic battle against misfortune (the 'ill year') and the private, domestic trial of marriage (the 'wife').
Agrarian and Domestic Anxiety
Rooted in an agrarian context, the proverb reflects a time when an 'ill year' (poor harvest) was a primary source of anxiety. It equates this unavoidable natural hardship with the domestic presence of a wife, revealing a deep-seated cultural anxiety about both economic stability and marital life.
Historical Misogyny
The proverb is a stark example of historical misogyny, framing a wife not as a partner but as an inevitable burden comparable to a natural disaster. The 1666 quotation, specifying 'a woman without reason', explicitly reinforces this cynical and patriarchal perspective on marriage.
Psychology of Fatalism
Psychologically, the proverb expresses a sense of resigned fatalism. By framing both external (bad harvests) and domestic (a wife) challenges as inescapable, the speaker adopts a posture of cynical endurance, suggesting a worldview where certain struggles are simply to be expected and endured rather than resolved.
Rhetorical Devices
Parallelism
The proverb uses parallelism to equate 'an ill year' and 'a wife', forcing a direct and provocative comparison between a natural disaster and a domestic partner.
Irony
The phrase 'do never fail' is used with dark irony. While 'not failing' is typically positive, here it means 'never fails to be present' or 'never fails to be a problem', twisting the meaning into a complaint.
Hyperbole
The statement is a form of hyperbole, exaggerating the negative aspects of marriage to the level of an annual certainty of misfortune, for rhetorical and emotional effect.
Transcription
Quotations
(and a bad wife is neuer wantyng).
Ill years, and a woman without reason, are every where to be found, and in every season.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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