A wife can lose her own self by absorbing her husband’s thoughts and vision.

Evidence

November 23: … Of course I am idle at present, but I am not so by nature; I simply have not discovered anything I could do … Sometimes I long to break free of his rather oppressive influence and stop worrying about him, but I cannot. I find his influence oppressive because I have begun thinking his thoughts and seeing with his eyes, trying to become like him, and losing myself. And I have changed too, which makes it even harder for me. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1267

Categorization

• XREF: Exactly demonstrates the book’s thesis of woman as Other who grasps the world only through the male gaze — connects to Beauvoir’s larger argument across chapters. — connects to: Total dependence reduces a wife’s freedom to abstract interiority that cannot save her — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1355; Helping a husband’s work cannot give the wife autonomous work of her own. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1352; Tolstoy’s ideal wife is a body stripped of the animation of her former self

Broader Connections

• Total dependence reduces a wife’s freedom to abstract interiority that cannot save her #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1355