'The Astronomer' By Kay Boyle

Kay Boyle has the astronomer appear very briefly; yet informs the reader on his life and how he messes up just by not being there.Having the astronomer appear briefly was very significant because it showed the reader how Ms. Ames, his wife, is not as happy at all with their marriage. This one act is very important because it is essentially what drives the plot of the story. Ultimately emphasizes that life or marriage is not a one way street and you have to look at both parties involved to get a fuller picture.
The astronomer appears once but this one presence caused a domino affect affecting actions of other characters in the story. For instance, his one presence caused his wife to ignore him and go off with a plumber. We rarely see the Astronomer
If the Astronomer was around more then Ms. Ames would not be having an epiphany about how she missed out on life and how she might be with the wrong guy. In the text Mrs. Ames realizes the extent of her dysfunctional marriage as well as her unhappiness in life due to her husband’s lack of attention during the daytime. This all contributed to the change seen in Mrs. Ames character, bringing back her sense of rebellion and excitement all while forgetting about her husband. All of this ultimately helped create the theme of epiphanies and help show how one characters action affected more than just other actions of different characters in a
For instance, when the narrator stated "Surely it seemed to him strange for a man to linger in bed, with the sun pouring yellow as wine all over the place” it made the reader realize how the plumber is developing in the story. The astronomer’s brief appearance left the plumber struggling to understand the actions of the astronomer and how he only is there for a short time period with his wife. This ultimately makes the astronomers presence even stronger and even felt by the plumber. Also it helped the astronomer's wife realize what she really wants in life. His brief appearance all the time in her life makes her see she is not satisfied with the way things are going. Then later on in the story his brief appearance caused Mrs. Ames to develop into a wild person who made her own decisions. The reader can see this when Mrs. Ames states "When Mr. Ames gets up, please tell him I've gone down.”. This action of Mrs. Ames shows the reader her full development of a character by turning from someone who always does the same thing to someone who does something