Nella Larsen's Passing (and marriages)

The differences are vast and obvious, but...

Did you see similarities in Clare's and Irene's marriages?

What some of our members thought:

"They are both manipulating their husbands..." -C

"One glaring similarity is that they both manipulate their husbands and neither one has an open and honest relationship with their spouse. When Irene starts to suspect something is going on the last thing she would do is to talk to her husband about it. When they start to feel estranged, rather than ask him if he’s noticed there seems to be a problem, she just internalizes it. Instead of explaining why she thinks it would be bad for the sons to move to South America, she instead pushes an agenda she thinks he would be on board with. Clare obviously can’t be truthful with her husband whether she wanted to or not." -L