Genre
Fictional novel
Setting and Context
The action takes place in a little village over the duration of a few days.
Narrator and Point of View
The action is told from the perspective of a third-person objective point of view.
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood in the book is a violent one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are the 4 women who are also the main characters and the antagonists are their husbands.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between marital faithfulness and infidelity.
Climax
The novel reaches its climax when the four women realize that they can's escape their marriages and their relationships no matter how hard they try.
Foreshadowing
The tense situations which will arise in the relationships the 4 women have are foreshadowed at the beginning of the book when Beauty dies.
Understatement
The main understatement is the idea that the four women can escape their relationships and find something better. Even though this idea is heavily promoted at the beginning of the book, it is quickly proven that the women in the book have little to no say over the course their lives will take.
Allusions
One of the man allusions we have in the book is the idea that men are free to do as they wish and that women will always have to accept whatever is thrown at them by their partners.
Imagery
The most important image in the book appears at the end of the story when the four women are portrayed for the last time as being together. In this scene, the four women are extremely depressed and stressed, affected by the events which took place in their lives. This image is important because it transmits the idea that the four women gave up on hope and decided to just accept whatever life threw at them.
Paradox
One of the most paradoxical ideas presented in the story is the idea that women continue to stay in abusive and dangerous relationships even when they are offered a way out.
Parallelism
No parallelism can be found.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term blood is used in the story as a general way through which the narrator transmits the idea of pain.
Personification
We have a personification in the sentence "the house resonated with the anguish held by those inside it".