Basic Trope: A person abuses their spouse.
- Straight:
- Bob regularly slaps his wife Alice if she does not do anything for him.
- Bob is hypercritical, condescending, and dismissive of Alice's opinions and even calls her very nasty names.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob not just beats Alice but Alice's mother or any other family member of the wife as well.
- Bob goes to the highest common denominator and actually kills Alice.
- Downplayed: Bob beats Alice, but it was an isolated case because of special circumstances (for example, he catches her cheating on him).
- Justified:
- Bob has a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Bob was abused in the past and either acts out against Alice to cover up his insecurities or because he doesn't feel that it's abuse.
- Subverted: It seems like Bob is abusing Alice, but it turns out that they were just playing around.
- Double Subverted: Alice was just lying about being injured on accident because she was afraid to admit he was abusing her.
- Parodied: Bob throws her off a cliff for forgetting to lock the door.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: The couple never abuses each other. Alternately, there is no couple.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I'm pretty sure that's not just 'playing around'."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice has many bruises and flinches when people attempt to touch her and is mentioned to be married, but nothing is ever elaborated on as the cause.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice gets sick of Bob and snaps, killing him in his sleep.
- Alice is Driven to Suicide.
- Reconstructed: Alice does not kill Bob and simply leaves the relationship and starts over.
- Played For Laughs: Black Comedy.
- Played For Drama: Alice reveals she was abused and her family have to help her speak out against Bob and receive therapy.
