Short Fiction · Chapter
Zone of Quiet explained
A nurse, Miss Lyons, talks at length to a male patient recovering from an operation.
What happens
A nurse, Miss Lyons, talks at length to a male patient recovering from an operation. She discusses her social life, her boyfriend Roy, her friend Marian, her past cases, and her views on marriage, weight, and aging. The patient, who is married and reading Vanity Fair, mostly listens.
Themes in this chapter
Marriage and Gender Roles
Miss Lyons discusses her views on marriage, preferring a man with regular office hours over a doctor, and comments on the age difference between herself and the patient.
Class and Aspiration
Miss Lyons aspires to marry a rich man like Roy, who works on Wall Street, and criticizes Marian for not being ambitious enough.
Characters to notice
- Miss Florence Frisbie
The talkative nurse who dominates the conversation with the patient.
- Mr. Robert Frisbie
The patient in bed, married, reading Vanity Fair, and mostly silent.
Key passages
“I’d die if I was fat! People are always making jokes about fat people.”
I would be devastated if I were overweight; society constantly mocks fat people.
Miss Lyons expresses her fear of being fat and the social stigma attached to it.
“When I marry somebody, he’s got to be a somebody that has regular office hours like he’s in Wall Street or somewhere.”
The man I marry must have a stable job with regular hours, like a Wall Street worker.
Miss Lyons values financial stability and predictability in a husband.
“I’m twenty-five. Twenty-five and forty. That’s fifteen years’ difference. But I know a married couple that the husband is forty-five and she’s only twenty-four, and they get along fine.”
I'm twenty-five and you're forty, a fifteen-year gap, but I know a couple with a similar age difference who are happy.
Miss Lyons hints at a possible romantic interest despite the age gap.