LANGUAGE LITERACY, Volume 1 Number 1, Desember 2017, Pages 97 - 118

MARITAL DISHARMONY IN JACKIE COLLINS’
HOLLYWOOD WIVES
1)

Nuri Buwono, 2)Andang Suhendi, 3)Zulfan Sahri
Faculty of Literature
Islamic University of North Sumatra, Medan
2)
Email: andangsuhendi69@gmail.com, 3)syahrizulfan@yahoo.com
Abstract
The study is centered on marital disharmony reflected from the
protagonist, Elaine Conti, in running her family life. Marital
disharmony can occur if the spouses do not spend sufficient time
together or if they do not have common interests. Elaine Conti is
married to a famous actor of Hollywood, Ross Conti, but their
marriage is not running smoothly as Elaine cannot put herself in a
proper place of a good wife. The analysis shows that any relationship
is hard and any relationship can lead to a range of arguments and
difficulties. However when it comes to marriage all of these
difficulties are exacerbated, which is a shame because the steaks are
also exacerbated. A break up means potentially losing home, meaning
legal and financial difficulties and it may mean putting the rest of the
family and particularly any children through a lot of difficulties. This
is seen that Elaine, the protagonist, cannot play her role as a good wife
in the family caused by her extravagant lifestyle, committing adultery
and insatiable passion. The method used here is Descriptive
Qualitative proposed by Koul (1990) and the results show that her
attitudes in running a marriage life have caused a marital disharmony,
in line with the main theory referred to as the base of the study
proposed by Hendrix stating that extravagance, adultery and insatiable
passions are the main causing factors to marital disharmony.
Keywords: disharmony, marriage, extravagance, adultery, passion

INTRODUCTION
Hollywood Wives is written by an American female writer, Jackie Collins. Ms.
Collins‟s story-telling skills found a wide audience. A spokeswoman for St. Martin‟s
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Press, an imprint owned by Macmillan Publishers, said that more than 500 million copies
of Ms. Collins‟s novels have sold world-wide.
This book has all the Hollywood drama one wants to find: extravagant lifestyle,
adultery, and insatiable passion. The way Jackie Collins portrays her character is
amazing, she definitely know how to bring out the wild sexiness of her characters. The
way she builds the story manages to keep you surprised and guessing with every turn. In
midst of all the intense drama, she manages to put in her sense of humor that makes the
reading light in between. The Hollywood wives will definitely take everyone on a roller
coaster ride.
The object of the study based on the novel Hollywood Wives is about Marital
Disharmony directed to the protagonist of the novel Elaine Conti. She is beautiful, smart
and talented but she feel disappointed with her husband who is seldom with her and
ultimately known to have an affair with Elaine‟s friend.
Marital disharmony can occur if the spouses do not spend sufficient time together
or if they do not have common interests. Finance is another subject which can cause
disagreements if they are not discussed calmly and properly. Sexual dissatisfaction with
regard to various factors such as frequency, quality, interest, enjoyment of the spouses as
well as extra-marital affairs may cause marital distress or problems.
There are three subject matters discussed and analyzed in this study. The first is
extravagance, that is concerned with the lifestyle of the protagonist, Elaine Conti. She is a
type of spendthrift lady who gives priority to pleasure rather than future plan.
Extravagant lifestyle is never recommended in any society as this is considered
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dangerous for the economic stability. The second is about adultery. As Elaine is always
left alone by her husband, she feels lonely and she tries to find pleasure from any man she
knows and she really enjoys having funs with these men as most of the men she has met
could give sexual pleasure for her. The third is insatiable passion in which it is seen that
Elaine is never satisfied with whatever she has. She forces herself to achieve anything she
wishes without thinking the consequences.
The title of the study is marital disharmony; this means anything or any problem
dealing with marriage. When a person talks of the word „marital‟, he must be talking of
marriage. In other words the essence of marital disharmony is disharmony in marriage.
Marriage is no longer necessary legally or practically. Once upon a time, for a
woman, getting married meant ensuring financial security and gaining access to a variety
of legal rights they would not dream of otherwise. But now, in the modern world, years
after the feminist movement has established legal rights for women, people no longer
need marriage to get access to certain benefits. Nowadays, women are highly educated
and actually constitute the majority of the workforce. Furthermore, people no longer
require a marriage license to be allowed to visit our partner in the hospital, and, for a lot
of us, getting married does not even imply a tax break.
Marriage does not guarantee fidelity. Many people get married
hoping that the sanctity of marriage will reduce the chances of
being cheated on. But if your spouse does not respect your
relationship and is tempted to cheat, a piece of paper will have no
power in preventing infidelity. Actually, it seems that in around half
of marriages, one of the spouses will have an extra-marital relation
at some point. (Gough, 2000: 45)

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Marriage does not bring security in a relationship. There are too many people
deciding to get married for the wrong reason. And one of them is thinking that it will
ensure that “until death do us part”. While this may have been true a long time ago, or
still is when it comes to very religious persons, marriage does not ensure the security of
the relationships in many of the cases.
Many people promise to love their spouse „til death do them apart, but research
has proven this vow to be broken after seven years. Statistics shows infidelity is one of
the leading causes of marital disruption and divorce; one in every three marriages ends in
divorce. Affairs have become common today more than ever and slowly rising are online
affairs which are equally harmful. “Extramarital affairs range from brief sexual
encounters to full-blown romantic affairs.” Adultery is being disloyal, cheating, and
unfaithful in a marriage, yet people have created words like “sleeping around” and
“fooling around” to minimize its severity and justify adultery as a guilt free act.

Today, society has created these phrases disguising the perception
of adultery. People have also created their individual values, which
lead them to pursue personal happiness. What people don‟t realize
is that infidelity actually hurts everyone involved; it destroys
families, self-esteem, trust, careers, and leave .No longer do we live
in the 1950‟s - a time when divorce was strongly disapproved.
(Feldman, 2010: 34)

Nowadays, it is not easy to find a successful marriage, but if people want their
marriage to work they have to work on our marriage. If both husband and wife put some
effort into the marriage there will be less and less divorces. A good marriage is based on
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a solid foundation of respect, some sacrifices, and a good communication. Respect is a
key to a successful marriage. Respect each other. They have to treat their spouse the way
they want to be treated. It is never about one person, it is about two. A great way to show
respect is to be honest and faithful.
Marital disharmony is then a condition where a husband and a wife do not come to
a certain agreement in anything and this tends to quarrel, fight and even a murder if not
soon solved. Marital frictions and tensions are quite common among every couple. A
saying goes, „those couples that do not fight, are cautioned of a divorce‟. Husband and
wife who have come from entirely different sets of background, culture, environment and
upbringing may tend to find fault with each other and may have a fighting for
unnecessary reasons.
Marital disharmony may happen because usually w omen are more emotional with
fantasy, whereas men are more realistic in nature. Generally fantasy and reality are two
opposites. Physical drive in men declines gradually whereas it is the opposite in women
to a certain age. Secondary to the hormones, life stress, job stress, different habits such as
smoking and drinking also have a major impact on these aspects. Normally men fall
asleep easily and women can keep awake. A few physiological and life stress related
problems may hinder the kindling flame and when such a thing happens, chances of
„doubt‟ and relating a situation may kindle the fire. This is for both men as well as
woman, meaning, couples. A wife may suspect her husband and husband his wife.
Couple need to discuss every detail of their routine with each other and such open
discussion helps them to understand better. Husband can be a counselor to wife and vice101

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versa. When couple do not discuss even the small matters, shall give room to doubts and
that may lead into a major problem rather disaster. (Hendrix, 2007: 98)
Matters related to marital disharmony are according to survey:
extravagant lifestyle, adultery and insatiable passion. When one of
the couples could control his or her emotion, marital conflict could
be avoided. (Smith, 2009: 210)

Marital conflict is not just a difference of opinion. Rather, it is a series of events
that have been poorly handled so as to deeply damage the marriage relationship.
Marriage issues have festered to the point that stubbornness, pride, anger, hurt and
bitterness prevent effective marriage communication.
The best approach to making marriage work is to prevent marital conflict.
Preparing for marriage is aided by pre-marital counseling. If this doesn‟t take place, then
marriage relationship counseling soon after the wedding can give couples basic marital
conflict resolution strategies that can be used before marriage problems get out of hand.
Marriage is a relationship where trust is built over time as committed couples set aside
their own interests for the good of their partner and develop skills for keeping the
relationship positive and open.
The first cause of marital disharmony in the study is concerned with extravagant
lifestyle. Extravagance can be a divisive word. Traditionally, a luxury denotes something
that is enjoyed by certain people and not by others. It speaks of the privilege and
exclusivity enjoyed by an elite and unattainable few
In an economy based on necessity, life is without luxury. There is neither a
significant surplus of physical product nor is there a surplus of material holdings or
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wealth. On the contrary, a capitalistic society is based on entrepreneurship and the drive
of the individual to reach a peak of financial wealth.
Modern lifestyle is synonymous with extravagance. The way the recent recession
has impacted the retail sector has attracted the attention of many scholars and investors.
A majority of them are attracted by the luxury sector or the recent growth of the budget
sector, however recent research shows that the most effected sector is the middle class.
Extravagance is becoming the hallmark of most world economies. It is a common
phenomenon, but now even developing countries in the world are resorting to it. The
economy is judged by the production and selling of goods. The gross national product is
the sum total of goods and services produced for a specific period at a specific time.
Extravagance refers to the consumption of goods at a higher rate. The more goods
products consumed by society the higher the growth rate of the economy. The prosperity
of a nation is judged by the per capita income of individuals residing in it. The economy
is considered to be” doing well” if the purchasing power of the people is high.
In extravagant society, people replace their goods with newer ones.
They purchase goods, use them and throw them away. New goods
when they become old are replaced by newer ones. The question of
repair does not arise People have money to purchase goods in
plenty. In case, they do not do so as it leads to recession and
depression and also results in unemployment. (Duhigg, 2013: 67)

Extravagance and the adoption of market-driven economic models are phenomena
that are changing the world quickly. This trend has accelerated as global income levels
have increased allowing people to buy things they could not previously afford. However,

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increased extravagance is taxing to the planet and ramifies itself negatively in several
ways. Environmental pollution and resource depletion are two main consequences of
increased extravagance.
In addition to this, the assembly of consumer products often requires the use of
resources that are non-renewable and perhaps even conflict producing. For example, the
production process for many plastics requires petroleum, while cell phones require rare
earth metals such as gold. Because such resources exist only in finite amounts, control
over them can lead to conflict. Thus, it is clear that consumerism can act as a precursor to
resource shortages and damaged international relationships.
The second point of study deals with adultery. Adultery means sexual intercourse
between two people, one or both of whom are already married to another person. It is the
willful violation of the marriage contract. It has become a very prominent problem in
today‟s society. It‟s spreading faster than many people could imagine and is almost
uncontainable. In this paper we will examine the various issues surrounding adultery such
as: history, the media, religion and how adultery can actually be prevented from the
beginning. Adultery is a sexual relationship in which a man or women has with another
partner rather than his/her own spouse. Adultery is seen as a great sin in the society.
Adultery maliciously interferes with marriage relations, and sometimes opens the door to
divorce.
Committing adultery is not uncommon to say the least. Adultery
seems more rampant than ever these days. Society has come up
with phrases which excuse or soften the perception of adultery such
as: fooling around, sleeping around, having a fling or an affair.
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These phrases try to justify adultery as being guilt-free and as if it
hurts no one when in actuality it hurts all involved. Adultery
shatters trust, intimacy, self-esteem; it breaks up families, ruins
careers and leaves a trail of pain and destruction in its path.
(Updike, 2011: 87)
Adultery will only bring pain to the relationship already established, though the
persons involved have got some certain paradigm of freedom. Adultery will affect not
only the physical but also the spiritual relationship of the couple.
For men and women there are many reasons they have committed or are
committing adultery. For the most part many who have affairs have a good sex life but
come from marriages with little or no intimacy. When a spouses needs are not met many
marriages tend to become more vulnerable to an extramarital affair. Often the failure of
men and women to meet each other‟s needs is due to the lack of knowledge rather than a
selfish unwillingness to be considerate.
Adultery, then is also triggered by insatiable passion. Insatiable passion as the
third point of study is something to do with disappointment for inability to meet wishes.
A person facing insatiable passion will usually try to find an escapism of any form within
the reach. There are so many passions, but no matter how big or small the activity, its
meaning in our lives never changes. Whether one loves playing a sport, listening to
music, or coming home to their children, the important thing is the satisfaction and joy
derived from the activity.
Passion is a powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, anger, enthusiasm, etc. It
can also be an object or something that people love or desire.

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Among all the passions in human life, the one that is extremely
dominant is passion for money. If not controlled the person
concerned will fall into difficulty; in other words if the desire for
money is not fulfilled, trouble will come and this is called insatiable
passion. (Robinson, 2010: 98)
Money plays an influential role in life. Money could do everything and these
matters only when a person concerned cannot control his or her passion or in other words
insatiable passion becomes a master in someone‟s life. Next to passion for money, comes
love and love and again if not under control will bring disaster.
Throughout many generations, love and lust has become a part of society that
people cannot differentiate between the two feelings. To some, love is a passionate and
exciting kind of feeling that only few share and to others, lust is the feeling that most
everyone comes to feel though it is the feeling that is mistakenly believed as love. To be
able to tell the difference between the two is very difficult due to the fact that love and
lust has so many similarities while they are two most definitely different things. Both can
hurt ones' feeling and at the same time bring joy into ones' life.
On the other hand, love and lust have many similarities because they are often
misread as the other. They both can make one feel special and important, warm and
tingly all over inside. Though one may be false, the feeling is still strong and important,
because lust can transform itself into love. Unfortunately, sometimes it cannot and in this
situation the person will suffer from a deep depression as the passion is insatiable.

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DISCUSSION
Getting married leads to the creation of new rights and new obligation between the
couple, among other things, they have a duty to maintain a good relation, to live together,
and they implicitly agree to have sex with each other without any force from any other
party. Marriage has been part of one's life since the beginning of human evolution. A
marriage is a commitment and unity between two people.
In the novel, Ross Conti, a main character, though having a beautiful wife elane, is
fully occupied with his duties at his work. He seldom has time to look at his wife, her
needs and her surroundings. A gap in their relations begins to form and they live together
in disharmony. Simply they live surrounded by extravagance, adultery and insatiable
passion which constitute their marital disharmony.
At the beginning of their marriage life, Conti and Elane love each other and their
marriage is based on love. But later the concept of love and marriage they have held so
far begins to change.
1. Extravagance
In Hollywood wives, Jackie Collins gives a picture of how bad the attitude of
wives to their husband is. The most important thing for them is money, till they do not
care about what has been done by their husbands. It can be seen from some of the
characters in the novel such as Elaine Conti, Maralee, Karen and Gina Germaine who
believe that money is everything. They think that they can obtain everything they wish
for by the power of money. Therefore, they try to get money by all means, especially
form their husbands. In other words they try to get money either honestly or dishonestly.
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Linked to the above illustration, people say that money is the root of all evil. No
one human being is perfect and sometimes people are caught up or overwhelmed in our
emotions. Some individuals will sacrifice anything for money and power.
Elaine Conti lives in a famous place called Beverly Hills. She enjoys all kinds of
luxuries, but she is not satisfied yet. Her husband is a big film actor. Elaine is heartless,
self-seeking and greedy for money. She is fond of making big party at her home, going to
expensive restaurants and buying everything she wants. She is in the habit of spending
and wasting money.
When her husband is not at home, she will go out as she wishes and the usual
place she visits is beauty parlor, where she thinks that she could make herself more
attractive and beautiful.
Elaine Conti drove her pale-blue Mercedes slowly down la Cienega
Boulevard. She drove slowly as not to spoil her nails, which she had
just done at a sensational new nail clinic called the nail kiss of life.
Wonderful… they had wrapped her broken thumbnail so well that
even she couldn‟t tell, Elaine loved discovering new places; it gave
her tiny shot of power. (Collins, 2000: 12)
This shows that Elaine is a sort of wife who does not think much of the future; she
keeps on wasting money on something that is not really necessary. And she thinks that
spending money by going to the places of luxury is a compensation of her loneliness.
This is some kind of finance revenge.
In her house, she asks her maid to cook but she seldom takes meal at home. She
prefers outing to eating at home. This is a gain a waste of money as the budget will go
doubled. She loves to go to a special place like ma-maison and invites her friends to have
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meal together there. Ma-maison is one the famous restaurants in Beverly Hills, usually
visited by upper class society. Her schedule going to ma-maison is on Friday; this means
that on Friday she will not take any meal at home. Actually nearly every day she seldom
takes meal at home.

Carefully she made a left on melrose. Lunch at ma-maison is a must
on Fridays. Anybody in town invariably showed up. Elaine had a
permanent booking. Patrick Terrail, the owner of ma-maison,
greeted her at the entrance to the small outdoor restaurant. She
accepted a kiss on each cheek and followed a waiter to her table,
keeping any eagle for anyone… (Collins, 2000: 13)

This shows how great Elaine is with her money. Elaine usually takes lunch at MaMaison with her friends. Elaine, Karen and Marales are close friends. They have the
same hobby especially making party, going to big restaurants such as Ma-Maison, and
bistro garden and they also like to spend their time for hours at beauty parlor.
To one extent, Elaine is suffering from narcissism, a type of self-love person as
she is trying hard to be saluted and praised though she has to waste a lot of money. A
narcissistic person thinks the world revolves around them. They are inconsiderate people
who are not kind or nice. Others word for narcissism are selfish, conceited, or snobbish
person. A narcissistic person sees everyone else as poor or second compared to
themselves. They require constant attention and much recognition of their achievements
and talent; they do not handle criticism very well. They are very susceptible to it and
react to it with viciousness and humiliation.

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On one occasion, Elaine invites George Lancaster and his wife, Pamela London.
George is a popular actor in Beverly Hills. By inviting George and his wife to the party,
Elaine feels sure that the other people will come to the party as well. Furthermore, her
name will be rocketing.
Elaine then invites Bibi Suttion, an expert in making a party, to help her preparing
things for the special party she is going to hold. Bibi agrees to this offer as she likes
intimacy with other people.
„Sweetrie!‟ she purred down the phone. „I‟ve been so busy. You
know „ow it is.‟ „don‟t apologize, „ Elaine said magnanimously, „I
know exactly what you mean.‟ „Darling, you really „ave party for
Pamela and George?‟ Bibi always likes to check the fact before
committing. „ I thought I told you it was for „em.‟ Elaine replied
innocently. (collin, 2000: 43)

The party Elaine is going to hold is a very special one as the party is purposely
arrange for George and Pamela. Surely it costs a lot of money to invite them as they are
famous people from upper class, but Elaine does not care about money to be spent on the
party. The most important thing is that she could fulfill her wish to invite George and
Pamela to make herself admired. Her money flows like the river water any time she
makes a certain gathering.
It is not easy for Ross Conti to advise her wife not to be extravagant as Elaine is
stubborn and always turns a deaf ear to her husband‟s words. Actually she is not a good
wife as she never wishes to listen to her husband‟s words. Then she does not want to

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know whether her husband has got money or not. Though her husband is a famous actor,
the financial condition of her husband is not stable. No one could be rich all the time.
At four o‟clock the party is over. Elaine is content with the success of the party. It
gives self-esteem to her among all the celebrities as they praise her all the time during the
party. This gives a sensational feeling to Elaine. The party is one of luxurious gala parties
of the year in their neighborhood.
After all the guests have left, Elaine talks to her husband about the party, but he
does not have any idea and does not give any response. He has been tired of his wife‟s
behavior. He just keeps silent as he knows that they will be in a difficult position
financially. They do not have enough money to pay all the bills for the party.
The following days, some creditors come to their house, claiming the bills and
Elaine begins to avoid meeting the creditors.

Oh God, it‟s the creditor. Ross has stopped paying the bills. „Lina,‟
she wheedled, „would you please tell him I am not at home?‟ Lina
banged a few dishes around and ignored her. (Collins, 2000: 123)

After holding such a big and luxurious party, Elaine does not have enough money
to pay all the bills. Her servant and the gardener have left her. She tries to come to her
husband but Ross is very angry with her. He cannot stand it anymore.
As their relation is getting worse, Ross decides to leave his wife. And Elaine,
knowing this, gets shocked and depressed. She cannot think properly when the decision
of leaving is given by Ross. She drinks too much to forget all the problems. Then on the

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next day, she promises that she will not do such a foolish thing anymore. She feels
regretted.

2. Adultery
Adultery is a deliberate sexual intercourse between a married man and a woman
who is not his wife or vice versa. This is a simple concept of adultery and pertaining to
this Ross Conti does not know that his wife has made several affairs with other men. He
is so busy on his duties as a big actor and he has no time to be close with his wife. Ross
leaves Elaine for months and Elaine feels lonely all the time in the absence of her
husband. She feels a kind of deep torture being left alone by her husband. Therefore, she
does not feel at ease to stay at home to preserve her dignity as a wife. She begins to make
private meetings. She has another affection and amorous affair with another man.
Day by day, the gap between Rose and Elaine grows wider. Both of them do not
love each other anymore. When Elaine meets Milton, she makes love affair with him.
Elaine admires Milton Langley, her dentist. They meet twice a week regularly.
Milton Langley, her dentist … had poured mouthwash over the
damaged garment and when his nurse returned, sent her over to ask
to purchase a replacement. After that they had met twice a week in
some dreadful motel in Santa Monica. (Collins, 2000: 56)

This is clearly shown that Elaine has got a regular and fixed love affair, twice a
week without thinking that what she is doing could ruin all that she has built. Committing
adultery with Milton is merely to fulfill her lust and actually there is no love or affection
between them. She cannot stand anymore being left by her husband for months. Her lust
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is firing. She thinks that Ross does not pay attention to her and he has turned a deaf ear to
her complaints. Then Elaine also thinks that Ross has got another lady to meet his sexual
needs. Ross does not fully respond to Elaine whenever she talks of sex.

What the frig to you think I am? A machine? I‟ll get it up when i
want to – not just because you have read some crap sex magazine
that says you should have ten orgasms a day. (collins, 2000: 45)

The way we view marriage today differs greatly from the past. Our views and
opinions on marriage and its meaning have changed considerably. Marriage is not
necessarily less valued, but just viewed differently.
On one occasion, Ross Conti brings his friend to their home. Elaine falls in love
with him at the first sight and then they continue with a love affair. Indeed, Elaine is
really a bad wife. She has heart to betray her husband.

An actor on one of Ross‟ films. She had slept with him twice and
regretted both times but that regret soon vanished. „pleasure …
pleasure … sexual pleasure…he is hot, he knows me, I know him.
All comes to top of what to say? (Collins, 2000: 52)

Every time Elaine makes a sexual tie with the guy brought by her husband, she
feels a little bit regretted but she could soon recover her feelings, as her firing passion is
flaming.
At the age of thirty, Elaine still looks pretty and fresh and also alluring. She
always cares for her body health because she wants to be looked slim and younger.

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Elaine does aerobic sport in Ron Gordino‟s health and exercise class regularly with her
friends, Maralee gray and Karen Lancaster. She is sure that this place is suitable for her
and she can get happiness in this place.
Even in this health and exercise class she could have a chance to flow out her
desire. She tries to seduce the instructor of the class, Ron Gordino until they manage to
sleep together. She is impressed by Ron‟s athletic body. Ron himself also pays a special
interest on her and this is a real luck for him. He tries to approach her by offering if she
needs some help.
„Need a little help her, Elaine?‟ Ron Gordino was bending to assist
her, grabbing her ankle and wheedling the stretch out of her. He
smelled of sweat and brut after shave. (Collins, 2000: 219)
Next, their relationship becomes closer and afterwards, they often meet in Ron‟s
private office. Elaine feels contented with what she has got from Ron Gordino, because
her husband has ignored her for at least two years. This is seen in the following.
Three or four times a week they met in his private office and he
relieved her tensions along with his own. Conversation was limited,
sexual acrobatic were not. Ron Gordino believed in stretching the
body to its limit. Elaine was a willing pupil. For two years she had
been sexually neglected, and suddenly she was like a desert
survivor who craved as much water as she could get. (Collins, 2000:
231)
It seems that now Elaine has got a real partner who could really turn her to be an
acrobat, meaning she could appear to be an athlete in a hidden sense. She is satisfied
without words. She could easily reach the top of the roof and then fly to the seventh sky
of passion and lust flowing.
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3. Insatiable Passion
Human desire influences the struggle for life to achieve something. If people talk
about struggle, it is a kind of flight through a hard life to achieve a certain goal or
purpose.
Elaine comes from a low class family. She stays with her grandmother and seldom
gets happiness. At the age of ten, she is the fattest girl in her class so her friends call her
elephant for her nick name. In childhood she is named Etta. Then the name becomes the
elephant Etta and she later becomes a secretary in New York City. She has high desire to
be the richest woman in her neighborhood. This will change her bad fortune so long.
One day she meets dr. John Saltwood. Her is a surgeon specialized in plastic
surgery. They meet at a party and get married a month later. She asks her husband to
move to Beverly Hills and set up a private practice. There the husband begins to
reconstruct her face.
Etta has changed a lot now. Her nose now becomes cute. Her mousy hair is rich
brown and she cuts it short. Her skin is alabaster white and smooth. She has used glasses
with soft blue contact lenses. Three years later she becomes a really perfect woman.
Everyone is in need of money so is Elaine. She is not satisfied with whatever she
has got from her husband and finally she divorces her husband and then gets married to
Ross Conti, a big film actor as she wants not only to become rich but also popular.
Elaine has got married to Ross Conti for ten years and during the ten year time
they always have problems. Nearly every day they quarrel, even for some slight things
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they could fight fiercely. Now she is aware that she lives in an unhappy life because Ross
often leaves her alone and ignores her.
Elaine frowned and thought about her own love life. Ross hadn‟t
ventured near her in months. „bastard, just because he didn‟t feel in
the mood.‟ (Coollins, 2000: 110)

This shows that Elaine is always in angry and sullen mood. Her husband has
ignored her. She has tried to talk to her husband but all is in vain. The husband never
even looks at her face.
Elaine is always in financial problem as her husband also takes no care of what
she needs. She has to borrow money from her friends to cover up her needs. While at the
same time Elaine comes to know that her husband has a love affair with her own friend.
She does not know whether this relationship between her husband and her friend is just a
coincidence or a type of revengeful relation as she has betrayed her husband. This
relation is known by Elaine in a coincidence.
Elaine swept into the kitchen and was about to tell Lina about the
two disco men when she spotted a light on their parallel phone.
Thinking it was for her, she picked it up and heard Ross say, „Jesus,
Karen, you‟ve just given me a giant hard-on‟, she listened silently
to the rest of the conversation, hung up at the same as Ross and
hurried out the back door. (Collins, 2000: 231)
Unintentionally Elaine hears the conversation between her husband and her friend
Karen. She is shocked; then she takes her car quickly and drives downtown without
knowing where to go. She is confused and does not know what to do. She is frustrated.
She feels regretted to have got married to Ross Conti. She blames her husband but she
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feels that she is not wrong. Her decision to marry a big actor is finally a misfortune to
her. Her dreams to be a popular woman in her neighborhood come to nothing. All seems
dark.

CONCLUSION
Elaine Conti and Ross Conti fail in making a good communication in their marital
relations. Communication refers to the exchange of ideas and information among two or
more organisms via certain medium or means. Communication may occur with the help
of words or through signs and gestures. The idea is to share some message and
communication is effective when the message is shared successfully or the thoughts can
be transferred to the concerned entity. Communication has become more and more
important in the global scenario as the markets have opened up and the notion of
competition brings on new challenges. In this fast moving world, one cannot ignore the
personal relationships where communication holds a major impact. The most vulnerable
area where the need for effective communication is crucial is the relationship between
husband and wife. The proper functioning of this relationship is significant to the entire
health of the family structure and communication lies at the base of the relationship. In a
social set up, where two individuals are bound to differ from each other with respect to
their nature, behavioral traits and thought patterns, communication acts as the bridge
between them. This stronger and smoother the bridge is, the easier it becomes to interact
and communicate.

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As the consequences, both of them feel disappointed with each of their spouse.
Ross ignores his wife, Elaine, by having some funs with other women while Elaine as the
impacts of her husband‟s attitude towards her tries to find something lost from their
marriage outside. She becomes a woman who leads an extravagant lifestyle, spending
money for things of pleasure, and she is in the habit of committing adultery as the
consequence of always being left alone by her husband. She is dominated by her strong
passion to get what she wishes and this passion is beyond her control.

REFERENCES
Collins, Jackie. (2000). Hollywood Wives. New York: Pocket Books.
Duhigg, Charles. (2008). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and
Business. Glassglow: Sullivan
Feldman, S. S. (2010). Sexual betrayal among Late Adolescents: Perspectives of the
Perpetrator and the Aggrieved. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. California:
University Press.
Gough, Kathleen. (2000). Marital Spouses. New York: Natural History Press.
Koul, L. (1990). Methodology of Educational Research. New Delhi: Vikas publishing
House Ltd.
Robinson, Ken, Ph.D. (2010). The Element. New York: John Wiley
Smith, Jeffry. (2009). Marital Disharmony. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania University Press.
Updike, John. (2011). The Couples. Belmont: Watdish.

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