But he is always alone with his work they really don't spend any time together. He seems almost obsessed with his work and leaves no time to act as a husband. Katherine does not understand her husband and he talks to her in a dialect that she does not understand. It is obvious that he does this to make her feel like a lower person than he is.
"That man might be each time the new arching wave, and the woman the undertow that sucked him back, were things she had been told by his silence were so". This quote shows man makes discoveries and he gets lost and he needs his wife to bring him back to reality. Wife is the undertow that breaks the force of the "arching wave." Boyle explains "He is a man of other things, a dreamer". This statement suggests how opposite the astronomer and his wife are so different from each other. He is always in his own world. He likes to watch the stars and look up into a dream. He is idealistic and he just likes to lie in bed and think. His profession makes it clear that he like to spend a lot of time in the dark at night. He is always pretending to sleep when he really isn't. He is more active mentally and Katherine is more active physically she is a doer, more practical, productive. That is why she wants to do work around the house and maybe also because she does not want to be next to her husband.
The author vividly describes how the wife and the plumber meet. She spoke in soft tones so not to wake her husband. While going down the stairs she keeps saying "I am Mrs. Ames", "I am Mrs. Ames." "She was a youngish woman, but this she had forgotten. The mystery and silence of her husband's mind lay like a chiding finger on her lips." This line shows how her husband made her feel like an old woman but she was quite young. Also shows how the astronomer had plenty of control over her and that he makes her the way she is. While the plumber is there the author states how she was wearing red kid shoes.