Irwin Shaw «the Girls in Their Summer Dresses»

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«The girls in their summer dresses» by Irwin Shaw. Irwin Shaw (1913 –1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. Summary: His short story “The girls in their summer dresses” is about quarrel in the couple. Genre: short story. Type of narration: 3rd-person narration. Setting: NY, 5th Avenue. “Fifth Avenue was shinning in the sun when They left the Brevoort.”1st paragraph: Description of the weather, sunny February day.“well-dressed people” is used to create the atmosphere of fashionable NY Characters: main: Frances and Michael Frances is a dynamic character, because she really loves her husband. She tries to save their relationship. First she just suspends him in cheating, but then she puts up with his desire to have every NY-girl in his bed. Michael is hard to call dynamic one. Although he stops denying the fact he is a womanizer, he can’t do anything to persuade his wife that everything will be fine and that he loves her. The end of the story shows he is a flat character: “Michael watched her walk, thinking what a pretty gal, what nice legs..”. He doesn’t change his views, he shows the worst side of man’s nature. As for the Stevensons, they just create the background of the couple’s relationship. The characters are mostly presented in indirect method, through the dialogues: “nice eyes, nice breasts, a pretty figure, good voice’’, because nothing more is important. Title: “The girls in their summer dresses” are the sense of Michael’s life. It doesn’t matter who they are; if they are beautiful – that matters! Conflicts: External: between Michael and Frances She is unhappy with his attention to other women. Internal: 1) between Frances’ unhappiness and her love to her husband. 2) between Michael and his love to all the women of NY (so-called conflict between
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