A handkerchief (symbol)
A handkerchief is a symbol of emotional turmoil. Olga is scared, for she has seen enough divorced women to guess what awaits her. She also remembers Emilia, her old neighbor, who “told everyone that her husband had abandoned her, had canceled her out from memory and feeling.” She retold her sad story as she “twisted the handkerchief with whitened knuckles.” That “damp handkerchief” was soaked with her grief. Emilia lost everything and the most terrible thing was that she lost herself too.
Poor Otto (allegory)
Otto, a German shepherd, is allegory of loyalty. He is “as good as gold,” loving, obedient, and unselfish. Otto is Olga’s ex-husband’s dog. However, he doesn’t take it with him when he leaves the family. It is quite possible that he doesn’t want to upset the children, but it might be so that he doesn’t want anything to remind him of his old life with its old loyalties. When Olga strikes the dog and starts “lashing and lashing and lashing,” she tries to take out her anger on him, to kill that strange obsession of hers, that long-living loyalty to the dishonest husband.
Female stories of the end of love (motif)
“Female stories of the end of love” is the motif of the story. In some traditional societies, women are more dependent on their husbands, and that’s why a divorce frightens them more than men. It is difficult to be “overflowing with love” and to be “no longer loved.” Some women even lose their names, for people start calling them poor things. “Crying,” “screaming,” “suffering,” being “torn to pieces” they learn to live without their husbands. As soon as anger dies, women find a way to move on.
