To make up for Toichi's low salary, Mineko sells knitting works and has rented parts of their house to other tenants, the Matsuyamas and single artist Tadashi.

While Mineko's friend Setsuko blames her for her detachedness and egotism, her younger sister Yoshimi, who rejects the institution of marriage, calls her old-fashioned.

[5] Naruse biographer Catherine Russell called Wife a "strong melodrama" with a "bleak view of married life", which shows sympathy for both parties, Toichi and Mineko.

For Russell, the film "touched a nerve in contemporary society", citing opposing view of critics who saw the fault for the failing marriage either with the wife or the husband.

[5] In an essay for the British Film Institute, reviewer Brad Stevens titled Wife "a work which implies that individuals living in the margins of society may be happier than those afraid to venture beyond the mainstream", and an "inexhaustible masterpiece" which "deserves to be better known".