My Love My Dove
My lady love, my dove. Arthur is happily married to Pamela, a very wealthy woman. They are awaiting some weekend guests, the Snapes, and Pamela isn’t looking forward to it. The only reason she invited them was that the Snapes are good bridge players and they play for a decent stake. Suddenly Pamela gets the idea that they should bug the Snapes’s room. She wonders what they think about them. Bored with the idea of entertaining them, Pamela, a domineering woman, persuaded Arthur to conceal a loud speaker in the guest bedroom as a joke. Arthur gave in only to avoid an argument.
Arthur doesn’t like the idea, but Pamela bullies him and reminds him that they’ve done similar things together in the past. “I’m a nasty person,” she says. “And so are you — in a secret sort of way. That’s why we get along together. ” Although Arthur was against the idea, he did his job with incredible enthusiasm. He carefully put the wire for a long time, thinking about how to do everything quickly and at the same time in the best way. In the hero woked up passion. It was their common characteristic that united them. On the other hand, Pamela was more playful, you can tell, she came up with the idea and Arthur supported her.
Later the guests arrive and everyone has a pleasant dinner. Afterwards they play bridge, and the Snapes have all the luck. The wife, Sally, makes one mistake though that costs them several hundred points. At the end of the evening the couples part and Pamela excitedly tells Arthur to turn on the speaker. They are astonished to hear Mr. Snape reprimanding his wife for her earlier bridge error. She apologizes, but he tells her that they’re just going to have to practice some more. Arthur realizes that they’re talking about a betting code which allows them to cheat and know all of their partner’s cards.
They were cheating their host out of all the money they could. Arthur was horrified, but Pamela thought it was terrific. She decided they should begin to learn their own code immediately. Again Arthur was unable to argue. «Why, Arthur, this is a marvellous idea… Go fetch a deck of cards; we’ll start right away. » Some words about these two couples. Arthur really loves his wife, admires her, talks with her sincerely. Their relationship seems sometimes difficult, but in fact their minor disputes do not carry anger or misunderstanding. The second couple is quite different.
At the sight of all, they behave like a good, loving couple, but in fact their relationship is poor. Husband says nice things to his wife when she is mistaken. In the story, after the game the guests went to their room, and our heroes became to eavesdrop on them. The worst thing is not that the guests cheated during the game. The ratio of the husband to his wife is terrible. He presses his wife, speaks with her in a gruff voice, scolds, completely suppresses her will. He does not care that she was tired, he does not care about her feelings. These two couples are diametrically opposed.
I don’t think that the hero Arthur is weak. This couple reminded me of the notion of mind and heart. Pamela easily takes crazy decisions, pushes them to her husband, and he thinks for a long time, trying to argue, but at the time of surrender takes a new game. This feature of craving for something forbidden is in both, but manifests itself in different ways. The story shows two types of relationships in the family. When someone controls and suppresses, and when people find common ground and go through life, sharing not only common interests but also feelings and respect for each other.
