The Girls in Their Summer Dresses (Irwin Shaw)

Love and Fidelity in a Short Story by Shaw

Irwin Shaw (1913-1984), was a novelist, short story writer, and playwright born in New York City whose many works often contained socially relevant themes focused on modern life (Perkins, 965). In "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses," Shaw (6) describes a "happily married man" named Michael whose wife, Frances, notices that he always watches and then discusses pretty women that he passes in the street. In this brief story, Michael reveals to his wife that not only does he like looking at pretty women, "sometimes I feel I would like to be free" and that it is likely that some day he is "going to make a move" (Shaw, 11).

For most married couples, marriage is associated with monogamy and fidelity even though sexual satisfaction and sexual activity in marriage tends to decline over time (Baron and Byrne, 341). Indeed, as Col

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