accidents” [15]). The introduction of this personified conscience before Wayman can even consummate his lust shows the degree to which he feels responsible for his actions, both upon himself and his partner. Had he not cared, he would never have been visited by the good doktor, much less so soon. Just as it seems that failure to consummate can be avoided, Doktor Marx counters with the consequences for Wayman’s lover. Enlisting an ultra-traditional view of womanhood, the philosopher paints a picture of a dependent housewife not able to make her own decisions. He then directly correlates this to a subservient position in the bedroom, effectively destroying any last glimmer of hope Mr. Wayman ever had of getting lucky. “If you are not working,” says Marx, “you are going to resent your dependent position. This will influence, I assure you, your most intimate moments (19-21).” At this point, it is almost possible to hear the groan of the speaker. As he makes a last-ditch effort to preserve the moment, Wayman’s conscience again screams stop in the form of another great thinker. As the poet Wayman details the awkwardness of the shifting bodies in the bed to make room for another, Doktor Freud is introduced to the couple and the audience. The connotations of Freud and his Psychoanalytic Theory immediately fall on the last stanza, as the reader can assume that everything that ever pertained to the situation was sex-related anyway. However, instead of bringing justification for the present encounter, Doktor Freud says “I can see that you two have problems…”(line 33). The open-ended nature of his comments leads the reader to believe that the lovers have only begun to understand the consequences of their lust-based encounter. While “Wayman in Love” details an encounter based solely on lust, “Touching Each Other’s Surfaces” speaks of an embrace in...
