The Women, by Clare Booth Luce

The story of The Women is of Mary Haimes, a socialite, deeply in love with her husband of 12 years, a marriage which has produced two children (Luce, 1936). The husband, Stephen, then fall into the clutches of a salesgirl, Crystal Allen. Mary is egged on by her friends to ignore hr mothers advice to let the affair runs its course, and heads to Reno for a divorce. After two years as a divorce, and desperately unhappy with her situation, she decides to swallow her pride and fight to get her husband back.

Much of the action takes place in a beauty salon where crystal works and where Mary visits for her manicures and hairdressing (Luce, 1936). It is here that she overhears through the gossip mill about Crystal's Affair with her husband, and she hears Crystal talking about her husband, which confirms the awful truth while in a dressing room. Crystal tries on a dress, and is heard to say, "Stephen would like this." Every scene in the beauty salo

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stments. Men would find it funny, but no doubt fail to believe its authenticity in that they wouldn't understand the world of women and the fierce competition that goes on there. They would perceive the story as outrageous and overdone, though some would find it humorous, particularly the chauvinists who like to think of women as mindless and here to satisfy the desires of the male. The language throughout the story is catty, but typically female, and the goings on in the beauty salon are such as can be found in any such setting - the gossip about customers, and with customers about other customers, the comparison between customers of the working girls, and their obvious distaste for having to wait upon the whims of the rich, their jealousy of the society women and their husbands and the luxuries they afford them. This has not changed since the 1930s - the hair salon is a delightful place for gossip, as is the nail salon. These are strictly female domains and the women feel free to let out their inner feelings when no men are around to hear them. Underneath the surface of the dialogue lies penetrating insight and sympathetic unsentimental emotion. Mary Haimes is actually the nicest and happiest of the society women in
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2365
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)