Who is Gabrielle & Michelle from The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and what is their importance?

Gabrielle & Michelle are two students in Madame Raphael's class, they analyze a play named Rhinoceres by Eugene Ionesco. Together, they try to determine the meaning of different symbols, finally coming to the conclusion that the author wrote the piece to appeal to the absurdity of the situation. While reciting their interpretation in Madame Raphael's class, a class rival named Sarah kicks the girls in the back, causing the class to laugh at them, including Madame Raphael who mistakes the gesture as one that was planned. The teacher takes the girls by the hands and they dance in a circle until they finally fly into the sky as angels, dancing and laughing as one.