Preview

Girls in Their Summer Dresses Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
679 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Girls in Their Summer Dresses Summary
In The Girls in Their Summer Dresses, it is necessary to explore the personal differences that cause problems in the relationship of the couple. The details of the story will lead to a conclusion that for Michael the relationship could just be a mere convenience or an affection solely generated by his physical wanting of Frances, so with the way she looks and appreciates the girls of New York.
Frances calling the Stevensons shows her attitude which is passivity and lack of idealism to confront the relationship with his husband. She is going to call the Stevensons because, she and her husband have nothing more to discuss about.
Michael's way of looking on women as mere bodies could suggest a kind of degradation—which is to define a woman only as an erotic or sexual figure.
There is an irony in the relationship of the couple which is the bloodless horror from the truth expressed that somehow the things are not, and never have been, what they used to pretend about themselves.
It is clear in the details with Frances that she had an initial feeling of insignificance and she wanted to be loved and acknowledged by her husband. The sentence, "I'd do any damn thing for you" points to a certain desire to be recognized as a good wife because of some degree of sensitivity that a man is needed in the family as the head and without him everything is nothing.
The "desire to please her husband" could also be attributed to liberation—such that Frances tries to uphold herself among other women and not just allowing Michael to dissolve her in the common wave of women. Her crying could also point to liberation by showing that she controls her own desires.
The theme of the two stories revolves around the feminist issue of marriage. A common notion between the two short stories is that love is a failure and a mere comic when there is the failure to recognize the beloved as a person and not a mere convenience. The stories also deal with the 18th and the 19th century American

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    After reading the two short stories, Love in L.A by Dagoberto Gilb and What We Talk about When We Talk about Love by Raymond Carver, I have realized that a common feeling like ‘love’ can be painted into so many different pictures. Each one of these short stories is written by two different authors and sees ‘love’ at different angles. The character Jake in Love in L.A. has this vision of love that is more of a mockery. Then, Terri’s ex-husband in What We talk about When We Talk about Love has so much passion, but the kind of passion that can be interoperated as obsession. The lies and misconceptions of ‘love’ that Jake and Terri’s ex-husband display reveal that ‘love’ does not exist in a world filled with nothing but cruelty and evil actions.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Godey's Lady's Book

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This essay is about Godey’s Lady Book, a popular publication that circulated 1830 to 1898. It was published in Philadelphia by Louis Godey. He saw value in the American female audience. The magazine was nicely crafted. It featured stories of fiction, non-fiction, illustrations and advertisements. It is responsible for launching popular authors. Women often brought the illustrations to tailors to copy the fashions featured in the magazine. It is like the women of today reading Vogue. However, it is a tamer version. It represented what Society taught was true womanhood of that time.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Heroes Character Analysis

    • 3616 Words
    • 15 Pages

    When she agrees to go to the cinema with Francis she transforms him. She offers him attention and affection that he has lack in his life so far. She enjoys his company and teases him playfully because he is so shy.…

    • 3616 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mia is Francesca’s mother. Very dominant and a University Lecturer. Mia is well liked. Acts how she wants. Actively involved in Francesca’s life. Gives her lots of advice/pep talks. Fran attends St. Sebastian – previously all boys. Only 30 girls attend, Fran misses old friends.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Her stories often deal with marriage and would provoke an unconventional perspective on the theme. “She forced her characters to face choices between what society expects of them and what they really desired” (Bonner Jr.). When the characters decided to follow their own path rather than that of society, it forces the reader to explore the problems and dilemmas that women face. “Chopin also is unafraid to suggest that sometimes women want sex -- or even independence” (Baker). Women accepted their roles forced upon them by society, even though a void in their inner selves longed to be filled. Chopin used her writings to put longings and feelings in written form on a page. The Awakening and “The Storm” opened an awareness that women and society needed to address and change for the better. Naturally, sexual feelings are something to embrace not confine. Putting restrictions on these feelings is not healthy and confines a woman to not blossom and grow. Letting a woman blossom would bring out the true beauty of her inner being. She also gave us a glimpse of possibilities when the decision of an adulterous affair is acted upon. No judgment or condemnation came from her writings. Kate did want to show that outcomes could have different collateral and consequential paths. No matter what decision has been made, the cause and effect implemented as soon as a decision has been reached. Either bad or good outcomes are one’s own personal choice. Every individual has to live with every decision acted upon. The consequences can lead an individual down a bittersweet path. To have the freedom or liberty of being one’s true self is worth the outcome. Every individual is unique and created to bloom from this uniqueness. People around us would not see the beauty the individual is meant to be unless we allow ourselves to bloom to…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed. The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship. She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever. This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house." Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no human interaction…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This short story is set during the late nineteenth century. The setting in which this work is taking place gives the reader the idea that Mrs. Mallard was stereotypically known as a week and emotional woman. Women during the 19th century spent most of their day at home, while men would be the ones that typically worked and went out to fulfill financial needs for a family. The reader can infer that even though Mrs. Mallards marriage was like an ordinary marriage of the time, she felt as if she was being forced to feel satisfied.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play shows a lot of gender dominance, loyalty and obedience and the importance it plays in relationships and how to treat females. The story of Kat and Patrick’s relationship shows that you shouldn’t judge people on appearances. Patrick thinks there is no way he could actually like Kat but in the end she turns out to be the girl he falls in love with. The idea of not judging on appearances relates to real life. At the beginning of the film Michael walks through the courtyard with Cameron and informs him about the different social groups at Padua High School. The examples of Kat and Patrick show us that people can be different compared to how they first appeared to you. The movie wants us to learn that we should get to know someone, because if we judge on appearance only we could miss out on a great friendship or…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Goldman's “The Princess Bride”, the representation of love and marriage has challenged my values, through the unidealised reasons to why couples get married, the long-term unromantic relationship between Buttercup’s parents and the rather fast development of Buttercup and Westley’s love.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Men like the way women look.‭ ‬Whether it‭ ‬is women on TV or in magazines,‭ ‬they seem to like to look at women.‭ ‬Is this common among all men to want to look at that girl in the cute dress or the tight jeans‭? ‬Or maybe‭ ‬it‭’‬s only certain guys that have to stare at women as they pass.‭ ‬But what if the man looking is married‭? ‬That certainly changes the innocence of the stare. In "The Girls in their summer dresses", by Irwin Shaw,‭ ‬Michael Loomis is a guy that likes to stare at women other than his wife.‭ ‬She constantly catches him looking at these women and she calls him out on it.‭ ‬He tries to reassure her that he loves her and is happily married but she isn't convinced.‭ ‬Michael Loomis thinks‭ ‬it‭’‬s perfectly fine to look at other women because‭ ‬it‭’‬s natural.‭ "God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.", he tells her.‬ He sees no difference and he thinks its the same either way. In his opinion,‭ ‬looking at other women is just as natural as looking at‭ ‬anything else.‭ Natural to him is that this looking is involuntary, for example, a woman passes him on the street and he can't help but look at her. ‬ Being an older man, admiring these women takes him back to when he was younger. This older man is "trapped" in a marriage that restricts how far he can go with other women. On top of all this, his wife sees their marriage differently than he does. She sees their marriage as them being a whole; like she just wants him to herself and that he should want only her. She can't understand why he would want anybody else or even consider looking at another woman. "I haven't even looked at another man since the first time i went out with you." Verisimilitude means‭ ‬“likeness to truth‭” or "the quality or realism in something". ‬ Michael has no choice other than to look at women and that Michael Loomis is…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One similarity between birthday woman and Frances is passion because birthday man “the husband was not pleased” he was ashamed of what his wife put him through in a public place. Birthday woman shows her passion emotionally as she was “crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself.” Birthday woman is also passionate about making her relationship work by not walking away from their problem, as he insults her. Meaning no matter what they go through she will not risk their relationship. Likewise, with Frances she insist for Michael to tell her why he is always staring at other women. Michael tells Frances “I love the way women look,” and goes on about the different wonderful women that walk down Fifth Avenue in New York. Frances is in denial, as “she began to cry silently into her handkerchief.” Furthermore, Frances is also passionate about working on her relationship by talking to Michael about their situation; besides, allowing the conflict develop into a greater extent. Instead, Frances tells Michael “keep it to yourself. I’m not interested.”…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    wide sargasso sea

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On page 17 the quote, ‘She had a clear view to the sea’, shows the sign of madness as Antoinette’s mother is looking out to the sea, This could be because her mother is waiting for her dead husband o come back. Jean Rhys could link this to the olden days when sailor’s wives looked out to sea waiting for their husbands to come back. The quote, ‘her eyes shut and her hands clenched’, suggests us that Antoinette’s mother isolating herself from reality creating a barrier, emphasising her sense of isolation. John Rhys uses different techniques in her writing, such as tiricolons on this quote, ‘Calmly, Coldly, without a world’, to make us think of why…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff was born in 1913 in New York City, after his Jewish Russian parents immigrated to the United States. He changed his name to Irwin Shaw when he entered Brooklyn College, where he graduated in Arts. Not only was he a novelist, but also a playwright, screenwriter, and a famous short story writer. He was, and still is well known for all of his short stories. He had won multiple Awards for his successful work, such as O Henry awards for Walking Wounded in 1944 and Gunner's Passage in 1945, National Institute of Arts and Letters grant in 1946, and Playboy award in 1964, 1970, and 1979.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character is Doris (last name unknown), she has a son, named John who is married with Annette, and is Doris’ daughter-in-law. We can estimate Doris to be 50-60 years old, if we figure her son, John’s age and his status as a married man. Doris’ relationship with the young couple is difficult, because she is an outsider, she is old, and they are young, both John and his wife Annette. “When Doris visited, Annette never found her jobs, or asked favours. If there were children, it might be different, but in her heart Doris doubted it.”(p. 1, ll. 11-12). According to this line, we easily get to know what Doris experience is with Annette. And we get to know that Doris want to involve herself more in the young couple’s life. “She had half hoped that John, at least, would say he really wanted her to come. But no. Certainly her daughter-in-law did not need her. “(p.1, ll. 8-9). And it comes to express, that Doris also not want to be alone, not needed.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays