An ideal marriage is one in which a relationship doesn’t fall apart and the couple stays united for many years. However, in the short story, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses”, Irwin Shaw shows how a married couple has everything a marriage could need until they realize that maybe something is wrong. When the couple was out in the city, the husband, Michael, kept looking at other women on the streets. This makes Frances, his wife, get hurt by her husband’s habit. Both try to avoid having a conversation about this situation but when they do, Michael wants his own space and he expresses his desire to be with other women. Michael and Frances fail in this marriage because they lacked communication and couldn’t fulfill each other’s desires. A reason why the couple lacked communication is because Michael wasn’t being honest with his wife. When Michael turns around to look at a woman, Frances decides to talk about this issue but Michael doesn’t want to. Michael tells Frances, “I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men in the subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe,” (Shaw, 74). Michael seems to be a coward for not telling Frances the truth by trying to change the subject of the conversation. The truth is that Michael doesn’t find his wife attractive anymore and that why he looks at other women. Michael is trying to avoid talking about this issue with his wife. This shows the Michael’s desires aren’t being fulfilled by his wife because she isn’t attractive to him. He is showing lack of communication by not talking to his wife with the truth and being honest with his feelings. Michael wasn’t the only one lacking on communication but also Frances because she didn’t wanted to hear Michael say the truth. When their conversation was about to get intense and talk about the issue, Frances stops and says, “All right, I don’t know why I started this. Let’s drop it. Let’s have a good time.” (Shaw, 74). Frances also tries to avoid talking about the issue because she doesn’t want her husband to talk about the other women. Frances sort of brushes of the situation and later acts like the discussion between Michael never happen. By ignoring the situation, this makes the couple lack more in communicating and confronting the issue. She is more concern on spending time with her husband, which is her most desired request. This desire can’t be fulfill if her husbands keep look at other women and not paying attention to her. The author makes us understand more about the setting of the story when Michael finally decides to talk to Frances. The author uses Michael to describe the women in New York