Summary

Pages 3 – 19. In first person narration, the narrator describes the reasons he had for choosing to marry the woman he did: among them, her general agreeability, her lack of personality, and her physical plainness. These qualities in a wife suited the kind of life that the narrator wanted to live: quiet, un-noteworthy, and stable. He says that there was only one aspect of his wife that he found unusual - her refusal to wear a brassiere. In spite of initially finding her lack of an undergarment arousing, the narrator says her choice made him feel uncomfortable – not that her breasts were all that noticeable, he adds; in fact, he says, “I would have preferred her to go around wearing one that was thickly padded, so that I could save face in front of my acquaintances” (5). He suggests that the main reason for...