Kay Boyle's "Astronomer's Wife" is the story of an inhibited woman named Mrs. Ames who is married to a domineering and apparently abusive astronomer. In the beginning of the story Mrs. Ames awakens early one morning to a visit from the plumber sent to repair a water leak inside the house. Through Mrs. Ames' interaction with the plumber a sense of fearful yet curious nature is easily perceived. She gives the plumber any information about the problem he needs and continues to inspect the pipes along side him as if he needs her assistance. The narrator's description of Mrs. Ames' depressing marriage and the enjoyment she receives interacting with the plumber invites the notion that Mrs. Ames is experiencing an emotional awakening from her dismal marriage. Kay Boyle effectively delivers the story's central idea that emotional despair often causes people to pursue happiness elsewhere.
             It is blatantly obvious within the story that Mrs. Ames' relationship with her husband is quite unhealthy, thus presenting her as the protagonist. However, Mr. Ames might not be pinned as the antagonist because one person isn't at complete fault for an unhappy marriage...unless he is abusive. Beginning with the first lines Boyle writes "There is an evil moment on awakening when all things seem to pause. But for women, they only falter and may be set in action by a single move: a lifted hand and the pendulum will swing, or the voice raised and through every room the pulse takes up its beating."(92) What the narrator describes is Mrs. Ames' feeling of fear before being abused either physically, "a lifted hand", or mentally, "the voice raised". Throughout the story Mrs. Ames seems unstable with her marriage and feelings towards her husband.
             The mind of man, she knew, made steep and sprightly flights, pursued illusion, took foothold in the nameless things that ca...