Mrs. Mitty does not explicitly express her feelings towards Walter, but she demonstrates no respect for her husband, trivializing whatever he says. Moreover, she seems to treat him as though he were a child and subordinate.
Because she dominates his life, Mrs. Mitty apparently perceives her husband as not capable of existing on his own. She watches what he does and chides him, "Not so fast! You're driving too fast!...What are you driving so fast...
Mrs. Mitty does not explicitly express her feelings towards Walter, but she demonstrates no respect for her husband, trivializing whatever he says. Moreover, she seems to treat him as though he were a child and subordinate.
Because she dominates his life, Mrs. Mitty apparently perceives her husband as not capable of existing on his own. She watches what he does and chides him, "Not so fast! You're driving too fast!...What are you driving so fast for?"
That Mr. and Mrs. Mitty are not close is demonstrated by Mitty himself, as he looks at her and is shocked. "She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a crowd."
When the Mittys arrive in Waterbury, and Walter drops his wife off at the beauty parlor, she instructs him on what to do while she is there. She scolds him about not wearing his gloves, as well.
Finally, after Mitty finishes his errands and sits in a winged chair at their appointed meeting in the hotel, Mrs. Mitty, who has had trouble locating him, does not even say his name; instead, she pokes him in the shoulder:
"I've been looking all over this hotel for you....Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How did you expect me to find you?"
"Things close in," said Walter Mitty vaguely.
Rather than asking her husband what he means by this statement, Mrs. Mitty continues to ask trivial questions about his getting the puppy biscuits and such. When she scolds him for not having put the overshoes on at the store and worn them, Mitty responds,
"I was thinking....Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" She looked at him. "I'm going to take your temperature when I get you home," she said.
Clearly, Mitty is psychologically troubled, but his wife, having no respect for his feelings and consumed with only the trivial, reduces his inner turmoil to a fever.
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