A Woman on a Roof

If Tom’s objectification of the woman is at first masked by tender feelings, Stanley’s is unadorned. The woman’s independence and indifference make Stanley want to punish her, and he refuses to be ignored.

Stanley’s agitation impels the rising action of the story, and his comparisons of the woman to his own wife suggests that he believes the role of any woman, by nature, is to be the possession of a man. The unnamed woman’s apparent freedom from and independence of a man is clearly a source of irritation for Stanley. Indeed, if she has a husband, his attitude must be more tolerant than that of Stanley, who states that he “would soon stop her” if his wife was sunbathing topless “for everyone to see” (74).

Stanley takes this approach yet sees no contradiction or problem in flirting with Mrs. Pritchett, whose husband, a pilot, is likely out flying an airplane, far from home. It is worth noting that, based on Mrs. Pritchett’s husband’s occupation, their family probably lands in the upper-middle class. In 1963, commercial airline travel was more expensive and indicative of wealth. The occupation also required a high level of education and skill. Thus, “handsome sharp-faced” Stanley’s ability to garner the attentions of a woman above his social station affirms his manhood (79). In this regard, she fulfills his expectations of the transaction between man and woman. That she is married merely makes the exchange a “safe” one; in Stanley’s mind, Mrs. Pritchett is only unattainable because she belongs to another man.

The combination of the heat wave and an unnamed woman’s indifference to him transforms Stanley from someone who was “normally a sharp young man, quick at his work, making a lot of jokes, good company” (76) to someone who “began stamping his feet, whistled yelled and screamed, his face turning scarlet” (80) and “looked white now, so perhaps he really did have sunstroke” (80). In reality, Tom will soon discover that Stanley is frustrated by his inability to command the attention of a woman whose independence threatens his sense of authority and importance.

Although he presents as the voice of reason, the mature man in the group, Harry ultimately sides with Stanley’s misogynistic and controlling attitude toward the woman on the roof.

While he initially chides Stanley’s preoccupation with the topless sunbather as a “small thing” amusing a “small mind” and reminds the gawking newlywed of his “missus” (73), Harry eventually resents the woman’s indifference, as well. The plot’s action rises when Stanley startles the woman with a “shrill derisive yell.” Rather than chasten Stanley, Harry’s commentary implicitly undercuts the woman when he warns “Be careful on those slippery ladders, love” (77). Again, this is a subtle resentment of the symbolic ladder upon which Harry and his co-workers can only climb so far, and will mostly have to climb back down.

Thus Harry also suggests a static view of “a woman’s place” as below a man’s, as it must be to preserve the laboring man’s sense of self-worth in a rapidly changing society, a society in which independent and educated women are surpassing him in social status and economic opportunity.

Despite sympathizing with Stanley, Harry has resigned himself to the practicalities of his occupation, social station, and life as a married man.

As an object of sexual desire, the woman on the roof represents an unattainable romantic interest for Tom, and an antagonist for Stanley, Tom, and Harry. The author does not give her a name, which further highlights her distance from the men, as well as her role as an object to be “admired.” The men are given first names but no surnames, suggesting the extent to which they belong to the masses. The woman is different in her approach to nudity, the men, the sun, and the heat wave than Mrs. Pritchett. Her indifference to them is a source of conflict for two reasons: It reminds the men that the woman does not view them with any interest at all, let alone sexual; and the cool, detached way she deals with them elicits an anger born of insecurity about their place on the socioeconomic ladder.