“When they were first married she had tried to will her husband into sensing the desire that burned within her and so continuing the act longer: she had been too shy and conscious of the conventions to express such wishes openly. Later on, feeling herself sometimes to be on the brink of the experience some of her married women friends talked of in hushed terms, she had found the courage to be explicit about what she wanted. At such moments it had seemed to her that all she needed was just one more movement and her body and soul would be quenched, that once achieved they would between them know how to repeat the experience. But on each occasion, when breathlessly imploring him to continue, he would- as though purposely to deprive her-quicken his movements and bring the act to an abrupt end.”
The woman is not sexually satisfied considering that her husband ends it prematurely. Although they are married, their intimacy is more of a routine. The husband’s behavior indicates that he expects his wife to repress her sexual desire. Accordingly, the woman feels objectified because her needs are not met during the intimacy.
"This is the only way to live at present, to turn life upside down, to sleep, with the aid of the sleeping pills, during the hours when life is being led, and to be awake with my thoughts of him when the world around me is sleeping: to turn life upside down and thus to be partly dead to it.”
The speaker is weathering a depression which distorts her life. It would be impossible for her to sleep calmly when her mind is preoccupied with thoughts regarding her departed husband. Relying on sleeping pills is an affirmation that her life has been altered fundamentally due to the bereavement. She still grieves her departed husband for she dearly loved him.
