Astronomers Wife †Just a Simple Complex Tale :: Astronomers Wife Essays

Astronomers Wife – Just a Simple Complex Tale  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kay Boyle's literary piece titled "Astronomers Wife", is a mental exercise. Every word and every line has an important meaning to it. Interpretation is a critical skill in understanding everything Boyle's story has to offer. Although this piece has a lot of sophistication to it, the story line is rather simple. The time period is the early 1900's and the story is regarding a rather young husband and a wife, in there late twenties to mid thirties. The couple lives out on the country side of the United States where houses are far from one another and the land is scenically beautiful. Although their surroundings are beautiful, the couples marriage is not. There is no love expressed between the two. Mrs. Ames goes about her daily routine, day in and day out. Mr. Ames is an astronomy professor who has more love for his profession than for his wife. The professor is a quiet man who uses his wife as somebody to cook his food, clean his clothes, and take care of the house. Mrs. Ames, a young woman in her late twenties, is living the life of sixty year old lady. Her days have no excitement in them what so ever. She isn't able to experience the stimulating life there is to live at her age. The couple does have a young woman servant who is there to help, which shows the two are doing fine financially. One night Mrs. Ames heard the sound of water in the hallway outside the bedroom. The next morning she got up bright and early to deal with the problem of the overflowing toilet by contacting a plumber. The plumber comes to the house and the young servant girl answers the door. She calls up to Mrs. Ames and tells her the man is here. Mrs. Ames gets up, puts on her white and scarlet smock, and in a whispering voice, as not to wake her husband, tells the man to come up the stairs. He does so politely, and right away, gets to his job of soaking up the large puddle in the middle of the upstairs hallway. The plumber is respectful and has manors, something Mrs. Ames notices considerably that is missing from her husband. After staring at the toilet for a few minutes, the plumber tells Mrs. Ames