Wives in Search of Intimacy: The Silent Crisis of the American Woman in Modern Short Story

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The aim of this article is to examine the sufferings of women triggered by the absence of intimacy in two short stories, Kay Boyle’s ‘Astronomer’s Wife’ and Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Cat in the Rain’. The exploration of the stories show how the authors portray women’s fight to express their individuality. The article also reveals how women are pitiable slaves of unemotional and distant relationships. Their essential loneliness and their search for fulfilment are revealed. In an essential struggle, the authors show women meeting challenges, disappointment and disillusionment. Moreover, the article demonstrates how, in order to adapt with these complications, the examined female characters evidently exercise unconscious protective mechanisms to prevent themselves from connecting with their vicious reality and instinctual desires.