Preview

Critical Analysis of the short story the "Astronomer's Wife" by Kaye Boyle. Included is an indepth look at the story's meaning, specifically focusing on Mrs. Katherine Ames.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
557 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Critical Analysis of the short story the "Astronomer's Wife" by Kaye Boyle. Included is an indepth look at the story's meaning, specifically focusing on Mrs. Katherine Ames.
In the opening paragraph of Kay Boyle's Astronomer's Wife, Boyle depicts a woman who is oppressed of an equal, intelligent conversation with her spouse. Mrs. Ames sees to all matters of running a successful household, while the astronomer sleeps late and is a loner. His profession makes it clear that he spends a lot of time in thought and alone in the dark at night. Boyle explains, "He was a man of other things, a dreamer. At times he lay still for hours, at others he sat upon the roof behind his telescope, or wandered down the pathway to the road and out across the mountains." Since the astronomer is often in his own world, Mrs. Ames is expected to cater to his needs. "That man might be each time the new arching wave, and woman the undertow that sucked him back, were things she been told by his silence were so." This quote exemplifies how involved in his work the astronomer is. Whenever he is on the brink of a brilliant idea, she interrupts his train of thought. Therefore, she is the undertow that breaks the force of the arching wave.

The astronomer was obviously obsessed with his work leaving little time to act as a husband. The marriage appears to be one that compromises Mrs. Ames's, and perhaps the astronomer's, happiness. This is where the plumber is introduced and Mrs. Ames begins to find stimulation outside her marriage. Something as simple as a conversation with a plumber about a stopped elbow is enough to trigger an awakening in Mrs. Katherine Ames. When Mrs. Ames realized that the plumber was talking about something she understood, she in turn realized that her marital problems were not the result of a division between the sexes; instead, she avalid one. She is not happy with a man who wants to go "up" and that she rather prefers "down". Through meeting the plumber, she recognizes this and is "called to go down". Mrs. Ames is seeking happiness and someone in whom she can relate. She needs something that speaks to her, something that means something to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Laundry & Bourbon showed an overview of Elizabeth reminiscing about their younger days and how Roy used to be outgoing, but now she doesn’t think she has his attention. Even though this play was hilarious, it also taught the true meaning of life and the components of marriage.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    LIT Unit 2

    • 573 Words
    • 2 Pages

    4. The fact that women are expected to be laughed at in marriage as the narrator states suggests that women are not taken seriously in marriage and are not considered equal counterparts in the partnership of marriage. The narrator is a stay at home wife who is expected to obey her husbands orders while her husband is a physician and makes all the decisions for her. Their relationship is suggestive of what gender roles were like in the 1800’s.…

    • 573 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    As a reader, this quote helped shed light on the relationship – or rather, lack of – between Edna and her husband. It makes it understandable for her to have an affair, but then again I found this shocking because she has children. Even if she wasn’t in love with her husband, and divorce was definitely not an option during the 1800’s – she should have stayed for her children. In the end, love for Robert or for her children, wasn’t even enough to keep her from diving into the…

    • 2230 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the story, they find several motives for why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband and sympathize the pain she goes through. As they look through Mrs. Wright’s closet to find clothes to give to her in jail, the two women observe how rugged and old her clothes appear, showing that Mr. Wright must not have been financially stable enough to provide her with the items that she desires. This extremely upsets Mrs. Hale, for she had known the unmarried Mrs. Wright, who was widely known to be beautiful, lively, and one of fashion. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also examine the kitchen of the house and find everything in a mess and every chore half-finished. While the men degrade her for not fulfilling her duties as a wife, the women support her and exclaim that “farmers’ wives have their hands full” (207). The stove in the poor conditioned kitchen is also used as a metaphor to Mrs. Wright’s relationship with her husband when the two women find it to be broken. The story states that Mrs. Hale thinks “of what it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with, and Mrs. Peters replies, “A person gets discouraged—and loses heart” (210). This clearly exemplifies the…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Janie is a young adult and just now figuring out who she is and what kind of woman she is. She is forced to marry him by her Grandma simply because he was rich. But Janie didn’t want to be with a man just because he has money, she wants to be in love. After her experience under the pear tree, Janie is looking for a marriage filled with affection. "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think” (Hurston 24). She gives the relationship a chance, but there’s just nothing there. Life with Logan is dull and he treats her like she is his property. Like she is a farm animal and even puts her to work in the fields. Her marriage with Logan made her have many realizations. The experience with Logan made her realize that she didn’t want to be with someone just because he has money. She was also looking for an exciting man, one that would treat her with respect. She begins to look for this love for the remainder of the…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Daisy In The Great Gatsby

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To start with, she thinks Gatsby is wealthy and falls in love with him. But realizing the fact that Gatsby can’t give her a luxurious life, she chooses Tom as her husband without any doubt. However, Gatsby’s appearing with historic fortune and his true love to her seems to make her moved, then she tries to recover the relationship between them. For Daisy, what she really wants is not a romantic lover, but she needs a man who can give her a comfortable life and a respect position.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the hand, E. M. Forster ’s society’s view on marriage is a little different. In A Room With A View Mrs. Honeychurch, the mother of the protagonist Lucy Honeychurch, is the matriarch. Mrs. Honeychurch is from the victorian era, making her beliefs about marriage more about economic reasons, but as the novel goes on the reader can see a change in her attitude. At first, Mrs. Honeychurch is seen wanting her daughter, Lucy, to marry a man named Cecil because, “he’s good, he’s clever, he’s rich, he’s well connected” (Forster, p. 86). And it also becomes even more clear that Mrs. Honeychurch really wants this marriage to take place when she finds out how her son, Freddy, responds to Cecil when he asks his permission to marry…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character is unnamed for the duration of the short story. The reader can only identify her through her husband's name. Her namelessness accentuates her subservient position and submissive nature. It also creates the possibility of her as a representation of every woman, especially since society dictates that women first take their fathers' then their husbands' surnames. This woman defines herself through her writing, which is also her work. She is a creative and artistic person. This puts her in direct contrast with her husband, John. "John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures." John is aphysician. Where his wife is an artist, he is a man of science. His inability to relate to his wife and his general disregard for her thoughts will adversely affect her recovery.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Although her sexual awakening is normal at this age, Janie’s matrimonial interpretation of the natural occurrence, though illustrative of the sexual aspect of marriage, is ignorant at best. “The problem is that Janie translates the remarkable love she feels for and through the natural world into a metaphor for … marriage” (Bealer). This event left her seeking answers about life and love. “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her”(11). As a result she found herself kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy whom she saw as “shiftless” until “ … the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags in her eyes”(12).…

    • 2603 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cathedral Motif

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the opening of this story, the narrator is closed-minded to the idea of a blind man entering his home. “A blind man in my house is not something I looked forward to” (1). It is through his resistance that we are introduced to his insecurities, and the layer of doubt that overcomes him. He is a simple man who lives a simple life. He loves his wife, but is not even sure what the love he has with her entails. His wife is a very expressive woman, using poetry to describe feeling and emotion. He is dismissive of her talent and more obviously, of her. “I can remember I didn’t think much of the poem. Of course, I didn’t tell her that... something to read” (1). They’re lack of communication is what draws the woman even closer to the blind man. She shares an intimate and emotional bond with him that she has never been able to establish with the narrator.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tea Cake is completely unlike her past two husbands; with Tea Cake, Janie feels young, alive, and like she has found her horizon. In a small game of checkers, “[Tea Cake] set [the checkers] up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She looked him over and got little thrills from one of his good points. Those full, lazy eyes with the lashes curling sharply away like drawn scimitars. Then lean, over-padded shoulders and narrow waist. Even nice!” (///). For the first time in Janie’s life, she, as a woman, is seen by a man as someone who is equal and is worthy of being treated right. Joe’s sense of gender equality continues when he asks her to work with him in the fields. While both of Janie’s previous husbands wanted her to work, Tea Cake gives Janie the choice of working and explains that he would like her to work with him so they can spend time together. Rather than seeing her as a mule like her past husbands had, Tea Cake sees Janie as a partner and a…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    As Emerson once said, “Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today” (Emerson, 82). Emerson is applauding the sense of being misunderstood because every life’s decision is a compromise between one’s will and society’s obligation. So, that is why Janie’s viewpoint of love had differ multiple times because her first two marriages where defined by society, whereas her marriage with Tea Cake was her own decision. Janie’s marriage with Logan was due to Nanny’s will, while the marriage alongside Tea Cake was due to her own freewill. Alike, the marriage with Joe was violating her freedom because she “pressed her teeth together and learned to hush” (Hurston, ), as opposed to Tea Cake, who allowed Janie to voice her opinions and listened. The love between Tea Cake and Janie was challenged by society. For a marriage is between an older man and a younger woman, it is balanced by the wealth one person carries, and the stability a man can offer. However, as Janie once said, “Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (Hurston, 191). Every person falls in love one way or another, to Janie, she choose Tea Cake for the realization that wealth and…

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When her husband Henry concludes his business with the cattle buyers, Elisa immediately wants to know who the men were and what they wanted. Henry pays her a compliment about her “strong new crop” of chrysanthemums. She is smug and pleased with his masculine choice of words, but then he immediately invites her to dinner in town. She seems to deflate at his statement, as if his invitation reminded her of her femininity. She then goes back to her masculine role of working with the…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “[Mrs. Bennet} was a women of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.” (226)…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Which career will get you involved in one of the most exhilarating areas of science? Which one will let you let you deduce how the universe works just by making observations of the sky? Astrophysics, of course! Astrophysics is a branch of astronomy dealing with the behavior, physical properties, and dynamic processes of celestial objects and phenomena. This may have originated from the Chaldeans and Mesopotamians at 5000 B.C. They had discovered patterns and regularities from celestial bodies, which sparked the interest of many scientists. Some famous scientists involved in this branch of science include Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, etc. Such role models spend most of their lives researching on a theory or phenomenon, which is the basis of their lives. However, their research gives them great joy, and no matter how you see it, their lives contain much excitement and benefits.…

    • 954 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays