The Tradtitional Marriage

Bree Van de Kamp (Hodge) is sort of the old-fashioned one of the group. She is the homemaker, Martha Stuart type who believes that her life is, or should be perfect. Her relationship with her current husband is somewhat the perfect marriage on the outside, but has many underlying problems. These problems are very outlandish and would probably never happen (like Orson’s alleged murder of his ex-wife), but they also go through a lot of the same things that regular couples do. The crazy story line is to draw people in, but I think that many people can relate to Bree’s character on the whole. She has been through a cheating husband, separation from that husband, his death, problem children, a crazy mother-in-law, among other things, and still puts a gourmet dinner on the table for her family every night. This makes her very relatable to the modern wife. Although she likes to portray that she has the perfect relationship and family, she has secrets and problems that she doesn’t want the community to know about. I think that this aspect of courtship is very realistic, maybe not some parts of the story line, but the overall direction of her life and relationships seem to parallel with many viewers.

Bree’s definition of love is about finding a person who fits her personality and sticking with them through thick and thin as best she can. This might be because she loves the person, or perhaps she thinks that people will think less of her if she fails at something. All she wants is for everybody to be pleasant. She believes in the likes attract likes rule of love because her husband is pretty much the male version of herself. She also believes in holding on to love and marriage and not giving up at the first sign of trouble. (Divorce would undoubtedly tarnish her sterling reputation in the community and cause many to whisper at her country club.) I think that this is why she stuck by her first husband when he cheated on her, and why she decided to stay with Orson, her knew husband, even when she found out some troublesome things about his past. She is so preoccupied with trying to make everybody pleasant that she often forgets about real love and passion. Bree would rather her life be in shambles in the dark and within her own family, than to be happy and have her secrets exposed to others. Many women or young girls could choose to identify with this character even if they are not similar to her because most people have been in a relationship or some situation that they would rather just endure than let their friends know about it and risk the gossip and embarrassment that would surely come.

"Everyone on Wisteria Lane thought of Bree as the perfect wife and mother, everyone that is, except her own family." -Mary Alice Young

This quote from the show I think says everything about Bree in a nutshell. (Mary Alice Young is one of the women's dead neighbors who is the narrator of the show.) Here are some others quotes said by Bree:

• "It's the age-old question, isn't it? How much do we really want to know about our neighbors?"
• "All I'm saying is that we're both going to die eventually, and in the time that we have left, whether it's two days or two decades, I think that we should be nice to each other."
• "The least we can do is try to keep up appearances."
• "Do me a favor, Rex. Please don't mistake my anal retentiveness for actual affection."