Tone

Once again, Jake was out to dinner and Cohn somehow found him. I'm starting to find it rather coincidental that all these characters have the ability to find each other at restaurants all over town every evening. In addition, I'm also sort of curious as to how they have the time and money to go out each night. That doesn't seem realistic to me. Anyways, the focus of this chapter was primarily on the character Frances Clyne. Although she has always been portrayed as somewhat pushy, her attitude towards Robert makes her appear downright bitter and resentful towards him. I was struck by the tone of her dialogue while she was speaking. She spoke with a level of passive aggressiveness, yet it was clear that she was angry with Cohn. Even Jake was shocked that Robert would allow her to speak to him like that.
"Do you want to hear, Robert? I'll tell you. It's so simple. I wonder why I never thought about it. Why, you see, Robert's always wanted to have a mistress, and if he doesn't marry me, why, then he's had one. She was his mistress for over two years. See how it is? And if he marries me, like he's always promised he would, that would be the end of all the romance." (page 58)
Her tone is clearly one of utmost resentment. I also observed that she's using a common argument technique of most women. They somehow always know how to make a man feel guilty about something, and then keep pressing the issue without letting it drop. I took Cohn's silence as a sign for him either not knowing how to respond or him not having much of a defense against her argument.