Catherine

Catherine is a serene thirty-two-year-old woman who has a distant relationship with her mother, husband, and four-year-old son. She is "modern" and pretty, slightly plump, with short hair tinted reddish brown, and a slight squint. With her husband, Catherine lives tranquilly if not happily, refusing to break the peace with the kind of talk that could lead to intimacy. With her mother, she maintains a safe distance, even though she longs, in a way, to ask her intimate questions such as whether she was happy with her father. To Catherine, "'mother and daughter' means 'life and repugnance."' She is filled with relief after her mother leaves, but the lingering sense of a connection drives her to build the same neurotic and imprisoning relationship with her tiny son.

The Child

"Thin and highly strung," the child, whose name is not given, speaks "as if verbs were unknown to...