Love

Throughout Our Wives Under the Sea, Armfield thematically inspects love through Miri and Leah’s relationship. When the couple is walking on the beach they see a sea lung, “a drifting anomaly of matter, solid and yet not quite so, spread out beyond the doom bar” (96). Miri thinks that “from a distance, [it seemed] to be something one could conceivably walk on, though of course in reality if you set foot on it, it would immediately give way to the water beneath” (96). In the same manner that the sea lung creates the illusion of a solid surface in the water, love is a construct that can feel solid. Miri views the love that they share at the outset of their relationship as a palpable entity in their partnership. She neglects to consider that love can falter, fracture, or fade over time. When Miri invests herself in...