In Marriage While we know that verbal battles happen in every marriage, reasonable and fair-minded people realize that there is a line between normal marital conflict and severe verbal and emotional abuse. It doesn't take great wisdom to see that when a dominant spouse begins using words to habitually control and attack, a critical line has been crossed. When the line between normal marital conflict and severe verbal abuse is increasingly crossed, the relationship becomes oppressive.
Partners stand less and less on equal ground.
One spouse doesn't have the freedom to say no or to express his or her views and opinions. The Bible doesn't take any kind of selfish domination lightly. Oppression is a terrible experience in any context, but especially in marriage. Instead, it's more like a dictatorship, one spouse lording authority over the other. To reinforce control, spouses with the most power may try to isolate their mates from family and friends.