She even presents it as an ultimatum: "If you love me you can do this for me" (1.8). She's perfectly blunt with him about what she wants out of him in terms of Robert. Not like she's confessing, but more like she wants him to appreciate the wonder of the experience (which he probably does by the end of the evening). She tells him straight-up about Robert, right down to the face-touching. And, by the narrator's own admission, she tells him everything. But wait, didn't we say she's straightforward? Yes, we did. Since she's taking her anger at the narrator out on an innocent potato, the moment also suggests that, like him, she's having trouble positively communicating her feelings and needs. We think it suggests there's some anger there that extends past this single night. Throwing a potato on the floor when she's frustrated with her husband (1.13) seems like a big clue. Getting at her present state requires a little imagination.
But, we know more about his present than we do hers. We know more about her past than we do the narrator's. She doesn't seem to understand that meeting Robert might be awkward and even painful for him. We can also see that in trying so hard to make Robert feel comfortable, she's forgetting about her husband's comfort. She doesn't understand that he's jealous, and she assumes he's going to be mean to Robert. She has assumptions about her husband, similar to those he has about Robert. Her journey in the story seems similar to the narrator's. This background information influences how we view her actions in the story. If we didn't have it she'd be a bare sketch. Since she sleeps through much of the present action of the story, the background information the narrator provides is vital to understanding her. Kindness, sincerity, and openness seem like significant character traits of the narrator's wife.
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