The Stepford Wives

(The Stepford Wives)

Joanna Eberhart is a photograph. Despite her love for New York, she accepts to live the town to follow her husband, Walter, attorney, to move to Stepford, a little peaceful city far away from the uproars of the megapole. With its marvelous houses and their incredible gardens, Stepford is its total oppsite.

Walter has just join "the association", a sort of club where the Stepford men only are accepted, most of them are managers of multinationals ans high-tech societies largely implied in cybernetics. Beauty models, kind and in love, their wives give all their time for house jobs. Joanna does not share in any way the strange hobbies of these dames, and in this little clean city, alone, she is boring.

Her meeting with Bobbie Markowe, a joung woman who arrived in Stepford a few time before her and whose husband has also quickly join the association, is a really good thing that avoids her to fall despressive. The two are becoming great friends and are well decided to put a grain of sand in the strang way of life of this wives. But Joanna and Bobbie do not succeed in changing their mind. Only Charmaine Wimperis, who arrived two month ago, seems to share their analysis of the situation.

But, the following day of a week end spend with her husband, Charmaine has changed. Then it is Bobbie's turn to change, also after a week end spend with her husband. Joanna does not believe her eyes. Bobbie that was rather rebellious has also transformed in a model of housewife. Joanna now is only thinking of living Stepford. She is allthemore anxious that her friends transformed exactly four month after they camin here and this is now four months that she lives there. Feeling her turn has come, following the advises of her psychiatrist, Joanna decides to escape with her children.

 Spoiler ! the end of the story is revealed below…

But they have disappeared. Joanna is afraid because each time her friends have changed their nature, their children were given to others. Thinking Bobbie is keeping them, she drives back to meet her and understand that she is not human when she puts a knife in her stomach that should have it left for dead. Instead, Bobbie keeps cool and repeats the same things untiringly with discoordonated gestures. Joanna escape and makes confess Walter the place where are her children : at the association.

By a stormy night, she enter the mansion that looks manor gloomy and without life. It's a trap. The chief of the association his waiting for her and explains her that they have found the way to make them perfect. Joanna tries to escape in vain. She finds herself in a bedroom that is the exact copy of her. Horror is at rendez-vous. She meets her robotics double, a perfect copy whose only differencies are a more georgious breast and totaly black dead eyes. The following day, Joanna walks along Stepford supermarket. Her new toilet, a bit archaic makes no doubt. She has become one of this strange Stepford Wives.