The Girls In Their Summer Dresses Analysis

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There is no one thing that makes for a good marriage; it is the semblance of marriage that makes people believe so. It is common for people to think marriage will be easy although it is constant work. Good marriages consist of communication, honesty, passion, intimacy and commitment. In the short story “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” by Irwin Shaw, Michael and Frances’s relationship lacks these qualities, therefore their marriage was not great.
Most importantly, the husband and wife need to both want the relationship and the life long commitment. In “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” part of the reason Michael and Frances’s marriage is falling apart is because Michael clearly didn 't want to be married. As he responds to Frances when …show more content…

Passion is energy toward a relationship, or in the words of “Understanding Human Sexuality,” “Passion is a motivational component of love” (Hyde, Delamater 282). Passion includes physical attraction, the drive for sexual expression and physiological arousal. This can be interpreted simply as a more romantic form of lust. Passion is where the distinction is made between romantic love and love of a parent, child or best friend. Something to be aware of, is that unfortunately passion is something that quickly fades, when in a long term relationship or a marriage. Therefore, it is important to actively engage one another and try to keep the passion …show more content…

Be honest with your spouse from the beginning about whether you want to get married, unlike Michael, who just looked at other women his whole marriage and was not honest about his intentions. Then of course Michael lacked communication, as he did not care what came out of his mouth. Frances is a whole other story. After hearing Michael say, how sometimes he really wants to be free and that maybe one day he will make a move; she just tells him ‘“Stop talking about how pretty this woman is, or that one. Nice eyes, nice breasts, a pretty figure, good voice.... Keep it to yourself. I’m not interested”’ (Shaw 9) This is where her lack of commitment, honesty and communication shows, since she does not want to put effort into working on or dealing with the problems in her relationship. She is in denial about her relationship and its problems which shows a lack of honesty with herself. Most importantly, she does not care for communication, because as soon as Michael finally starts communicating she shuts him down. In summary, for a marriage to work it is necessary for the couple to have honesty, communication, commitment, passion and intimacy. Without all these qualities in balance with each other on both partners parts a marriage cannot

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