Analysis
To write an analysis on "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses," one would analyze how the plot develops and how the author conveys the deterioration of the intimacy and understanding between the married couple, Frances and Michael. In this story, they are walking along Fifth Avenue in New York City on a crisp Sunday morning in November. At first, the couple is quite happy with spending time together, and they even contemplate canceling their plans with another couple in order to be alone. However, after Frances catches her husband gazing longingly at a beautiful woman, their happy mood drastically changes, no matter how hard both of them try to save it.
First, we can examine how this can be seen in their gestures. In the beginning, when the couple is content and carefree, Michael is holding tightly to his wife's arm, which shows their closeness and intimacy. However, after they begin to bicker about Michael's wandering eye, they become more physically distant. They try to hold hands again, but it feels forced. Also, Michael tries to reassure his wife by extending his hand, pressing her elbow, and touching her thigh, but she responds by withdrawing from him. This shows the reader how, oftentimes, body language tells more than what is spoken.
It is also interesting to focus on their miscommunication and its effect on their true intentions. In the beginning, they yearn to spend quality time together at the football game to enjoy the fresh air. However, once they become more agitated, all they want to do is drink alcohol, which leads to more misunderstandings. As they drink, Frances keeps asking her husband to tell her the truth and feeds him ideas like, "You want to be free, don't you?" While she might be tempting him to say yes, she really wants him to say no and reassure her, but her husband gets the wrong message in his drunken state and becomes more brutally honest. What is unfortunate is that Michael seems to truly love and be attracted to his wife, but instead of communicating this, he exacerbates her fear of not being attractive enough to keep him faithful.
The irony is that their miscommunication leads them to abandon their original intentions of spending quality time together (which is what their relationship really needs) in order to join the other couple and ignore their relationship problems.
It is also important to note the role of gender difference within the married couple. Specifically, this appears in relation to whose experience fits into the role of “visible” and “invisible.” Michael, as a man, receives no public backlash for admiring other women when with his wife. He ogles and flirts (from a distance) in plain sight. In other words, he and his experience are witnessed without much trouble. Frances, on the other hand, must make her own experience invisible. She has spent a good amount of their relationship pretending she does not notice the way Michael looks at other women “the way [he] looked at [her] the first time.” It makes her feel insecure, uncomfortable, and sick to her stomach to know that Michael is so openly attracted to other women. Frances is frustrated that she is so affected by his behavior. When she makes her feelings known, she receives little reassurance because, as a woman, her emotions are more acceptable when kept inside.
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