The Girls in Their Summer Dresses

by Irwin Shaw

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What quote confirms why Frances insists on the truth from Michael?

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Frances insists on the truth from Michael because she is troubled by his habitual girl-watching, which makes her feel inadequate and questions their marriage's security. She expresses her feelings through quotes like, "You always look at other women," and "Why do you hurt me?" These illustrate her need for honesty to alleviate her discomfort and to reassure herself of her importance to Michael, despite his wandering eyes.

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The short story "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" by Irwin Shaw tells of a couple, Michael and Frances, who seem to be happy together, until a long-brewing problem threatens to disrupt their marriage. They emerge onto Fifth Avenue in New York on a Sunday after eating breakfast together, and Frances almost immediately notices that Michael is watching other women. When she points this out, they first laugh it off, but then their disagreement gets more serious. After they go to have a drink together, Frances insists on Michael telling her the whole truth: not only that he enjoys looking at other women, but also whether he fantasizes about doing more with them.

There are several reasons why Frances presses Michael to tell her the truth, so there are several possible quotes that might answer your question. We will look at some of these, and then you can...

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decide which quote would be best to use.

Frances insists on Michael telling her the truth because the incidents of girl-watching on that Sunday are not isolated. They occur frequently, and Frances's annoyance and apprehension about Michael's habit has been building for a long time. Here is an example of a quote that illustrates this:

"You always look at other women," Frances said. "At every damn woman in the city of New York."

This quote carries the thought and Frances's suspicions further:

"You ought to see the look in your eye," Frances said, "as you casually inspect the universe on Fifth Avenue."

Most people want to know the whole truth even if it causes them pain. That's another of Frances's motivations in insisting that Michael tell her the truth. She wants to relieve the inadequacy that his actions make her feel, and she also wants the reassurance that she is still important to him. She expresses these emotions like this:

I feel rotten inside, in my stomach, when we pass a woman and you look at her and I see that look in your eye and that's the way you looked at me the first time, in Alice Maxwell's house. Standing there in the living room, next to the radio, with a green hat on and all those people.

Finally, she insists on knowing the truth because she still values their marriage and wants to know that it is still secure even if Michael gives in to his impulses and has outside affairs. She indirectly alludes to this when she asks him to do her a favor.

"Stop talking about how pretty this woman is, or that one. Nice eyes, nice breasts, a pretty figure, good voice," she mimicked his voice. "Keep it to yourself. I'm not interested."

In saying this, she is expressing that she will tolerate his impulses as long as he is clandestine about them and their marriage remains intact.

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Why does Michael tell the truth in "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses"?

Irwin Shaw's brief story is both a relic of past gender dynamics and, at the same time, an expression of a universal inner conflict that probably exists in all relationships.

In today's world, one would hope that most couples might either not have the need to discuss this issue in this way or would accept it as "realistic," with the acknowledgement that women can also and perhaps should also have similarly roving eyes or that most men would be sensitive enough to apologize to their wives for their insensitivity in making their ogling so obvious and then would stop doing it. The following quote leads to Michael's full discourse of his behavior:

"Why do you hurt me?" Frances asked. "What're you doing?"

At this point Michael realizes she is upset enough that he can't dismiss the matter and that he must now tell her the truth. The subtext, however, which is probably more recognizable now than it was over half a century ago when the story was written, is that Michael is annoyed by his wife's repeated questioning and therefore wants to throw all of this back in her face, elaborating on all these different women he examines in public. The story is a snapshot of life at a time when literature was opening up and the previous constraints upon authors about sexual issues were being discarded. Shaw writes with the self-consciousness typical of his time, and his characters seem to have the need to spell out things that have since that time been discussed so often that they would no longer be the subject of a literary piece, or at least, a piece written in this way. Or, conversely, a husband's annoying behavior would today be judged rather than rationalized as it is in Shaw's story. Still, the story's insight into a couple's dynamic is timeless and moving in its way.

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