Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
The Stepford Wives: Introduction
The Stepford Wives: Plot Summary
The Stepford Wives: Detailed Summary & Analysis
The Stepford Wives: Themes
The Stepford Wives: Quotes
The Stepford Wives: Characters
The Stepford Wives: Symbols
The Stepford Wives: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Ira Levin
Historical Context of The Stepford Wives
Other Books Related to The Stepford Wives
- Full Title: The Stepford Wives
- When Published: September 1972
- Literary Period: Postmodern
- Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Satire
- Setting: The fictional suburban town of Stepford, which is based on Wilton, Connecticut
- Climax: Realizing that the men in Stepford are planning to turn her into a robot, Joanna makes a mad dash for freedom through deep snow, only to be cornered by three men and coaxed into her friend’s house.
- Antagonist: The men of Stepford and, more generally, society’s sexist expectations of women
- Point of View: Third Person
Extra Credit for The Stepford Wives
The Big Screen. The Stepford Wives has been made into a film two times. The first was in 1975, and it received mediocre reviews. Well-known feminists like Betty Friedan saw it as a cheap rip-off of the feminist movement. The second adaptation was in 2004 and starred Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Middler, Glenn Close, and Christopher Walken—despite its star-studded cast, most viewers and critics alike did not like it.
High Praise. The celebrated horror and suspense novelist Stephen King called Ira Levin the “Swiss watchmaker” of suspense novels, since all of Levin’s books feature such precise and impressive plots.