The Girls in their Summer Dresses

In Irwin Shaw’s "The Girls in their Summer Dresses," there are two different types of conflict presented that are causing Michael and Frances' relationship problems: Man vs. Man and Man vs. Self.

The conflict between Michael and Frances is Man vs. Man. The two of them are having an argument because Michael's tendency to look at other woman everywhere he goes. Frances doesn't understand why he has the need to do this when he says that he loves her very much and is happily married. As she keeps bring the subject up, Michael tries to explain himself, but even he is unsure as to why he looks at other women.

There are two different conflicts dealing with Man vs. Self: Michael vs. Himself and Frances vs. Herself. With Michael, he is having conflict with himself when he looks at other woman. In a sense, I think he knows it's wrong, yet he still continues to do it. While trying to explain himself to Frances, Michael states, “When I think of New York City, I think of all the girls...all on parade in the city. I don't know whether it's something special with me or whether every man in the city walks around with the same feeling inside him, but I feel as though I'm on a picnic in this city” (pg. 1338). When looking closely at France’s conflict within herself, you can see that she was hesitant to bring up this sore subject on their planned Sunday. After his first response, she tried to drop the subject and carry on with their day, but she continued to egg him on and search for more answers. In the end, when Michael had full exposed himself, she had finally heard all she wanted to hear and told Michael to stop talking about the pretty women and to keep it to himself. One might question whether or not Frances regretted bringing up the subject at all.