The World's Wife Chapter 2 Summary

Thetis begins by shrinking herself to the size of a bird perched in a man's hand, singing a sweet song until his fist squeezes her. She then shoulders an albatross‑sized cross up a sky‑hill to follow a ship, only to have her wings clipped by a crossbow’s eye. Seeking a new shape, she purchases a size‑8 snake, a “big mistake,” and feels a charmer’s grasp strangling her neck. She next becomes a roaring, clawed 50‑pound jungle predator, confronting a man with a twelve‑bore gun, before sinking into the earth and swimming as a mermaid, then a large fish, eel, dolphin, and whale—an oceanic opera singer—while a fisherman hauls her with hook, line, and sinker. Transforming again, she assumes the forms of a raccoon, skunk, stoat, weasel, ferret, bat, mink, and rat, each time encountering a taxidermist sharpening knives and the smell of formaldehyde. She then becomes wind, gas, and hot air, trailing clouds as hair and carving her name with a hurricane, only to be interrupted by a roaring fighter plane. Her tongue turns to flame and her kisses burn, yet the groom she confronts wears asbestos. Finally, she changes, learns, and feels herself turned inside out, leading to a sudden burst of a child, symbolizing a final metamorphosis.