In her novel Good Wives Laurel Thatcher Ulrich explores the roles women played in northern New England during the 17th and 18th centuries. In her exploration she describes both the idealized and realized roles held by New England women. Ulrich categorizes the books into three parts, each named after a biblical woman who represents traits in line with New England expectations for women. Ulrich points out that women were expected to fill multiple roles at once: “A married woman in early New England was simultaneously a housewife, a vice-husband, a consort, a mother, a lover, a neighbor, and a Christian. On the war-torn frontier she might even become a heroine” (p. 9). Ulrich maintained the position that none of these roles could play out in isolation, and devoted the remainder of Good Wives to studying how these numerous roles would be played out. In the first part, entitled Bathsheba, Ulrich discusses how women fulfilled their roles as housewives. Bethseba is described as “a willing servant of her family… By doing so, she earns the devotion of her children, the praise of her husband, and the praise of God” (p. 14). A wife would only be considered a good wife if she was able to perform her domestic duties, a seventeenth century writer wrote that “a woman who was 'utterly ignorant' of cooking could 'then keep only half her mark; for he can love and obey him, but he cannot love, serve and maintain him with that true duty which is always expected'” (p. 20). By explaining the roles of a good housewife, Ulrich allows the reader to be introduced to Beatrice Plummer, Hannah Grafton, and Magdalen Wear: three women who live in three distinct families, but all strive to fit into the ideals modeled after them. ...... half of the paper ...... uses anecdotes and stories of women in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide evidence to the reader and demonstrate the roles women filled and how they filled those roles. Furthermore, it illustrates the individuality in each woman's story. Although in many stories women may fill the same roles, the uniqueness of the situation varies from woman to woman. Ulrich's use of period stories helps to increase the credibility of the arguments he makes. It makes the reader feel the weight of responsibility on the shoulders of colonial New England women. The reader gains a sense of appreciation for the sheer number of roles filled by New England women. Additionally, Ulrich's real-life accounts also provide valuable insight into life as it was during this period of American history and the silent heroes behind it: the New England wives.