Question -
Answer -
Certain threads in the story, which come up, like digressions from time to time hint at the marital discord between Jack and his wife. When Jack heard a chair scrape downstairs, he realized his wife was at work but he “had no wish to hurry on”. He made a dispirited observation of Jo’s expression “without a trace of sincerity” and was reminded of his wife’s feigning pleasure at cocktail parties. He continued with the story, leaving his pregnant wife to move around heavy furniture.
After the story, Jack went downstairs and watched his wife labour, but did not help her. He felt “caught in an ugly middle position” and must have felt trapped in responsibility and marriage. The use of the image of the “cage” while reveals his dissatisfaction with his marriage. The story ends with the most poignant and telling lines—“…he did not want to speak with her, work with her, touch her, anything”.