Happy With His Wife example essay topic

Keep Your Eyes on Your Wife Shaw's depiction of Michael in The Girls in Their Summer Dresses is that he is happily married to his wife of five years. He thinks he supports his wife and loves her dearly; however, this is not true because his actions show otherwise. When he stares at other women, he hurts his wife's feelings and hurts their relationship. Marriage is portrayed as something that is a fact of life, not the special bond it is.

A man or woman is married but still feels the need to look at the opposite sex while not realizing that this hurts the other. Even if a man thinks another woman is attractive or even more attractive than his wife, he should, under no circumstances, let his wife know he thinks this. It hurts a relationship when someone looks at the opposite sex as if they want him or her. Michael is depicted as thinking he is happily married and very much in love with his wife. In reality, if he were so happy with his wife, he would not feel the need to obviously stare at other women. He is lying to himself to think he is happy with his wife.

Because he is lying to himself, he is also lying to her. By him staring at other women, it shows that he is disregarding her by inattentiveness to her needs, wishes, and desires. A husband is supposed to want to fulfill his wife's desires daily. Frances tells him. ".. we only see each other in bed (1034)". This shows that he does not fulfill his wife. He does not pay attention to what Frances says, wears, or thinks.

However, he can tell her when, where, and what the women wear on fiftieth and fifty-seventh avenue. This makes for an unhappy marriage. It is men's nature to look at women as they walk past; however, Michael takes it to the extreme and stares. He is oblivious to that fact that this hurts his wife. As she tells him that she wants to spend the day with him, he stares at other women and hardly pays attention to her. When Frances suggests they go to the Metropolitan Museum, it is not because she wants to go but because Michael expressed interest in it the week before.

Frances sees her beloved husband stare at other women so she feels the need to get his attention. She thinks she needs to do this because he does not treat her as his wife. Michael seems to not want to be involved in her life. Because of this, she thinks she must do what her husband likes so they can spend time together. This is disrespectful to his wife and their relationship. Frances is supposed to be the only woman he is interested in.

The reader is supposed to think of Michael as typical but terrible. He is typical in that he is a man and men will always look at other women even if they are with their wives or girlfriends. However, because Michael takes looking to the extreme, he is terrible. At the end of the story, Michael thinks to himself "what a pretty girl, what nice legs (1038)". In that one thought, he objectifies his wife.

He puts her on the same level as all the other women in the world. A man should put his wife way above the other women and treat her with great respect.