The World's Wife Chapter 7 Summary

Little Red‑Cap meets a poetic wolf, follows him into the forest, endures a series of violent and symbolic trials over ten years, kills the wolf, fills his belly with stones, and emerges from the woods alone, carrying flowers. Thetis repeatedly shapeshifts through a cascade of animal and elemental forms, each encounter marked by violence or confinement, ultimately culminating in a transformative rebirth. Mrs Midas confronts her husband’s obsessive gold‑induced behavior, serves him a meal that triggers a violent outburst, forces his removal from the home, and reflects on the loss of his once‑passionate touch. Mrs. Tiresias recounts her husband’s sudden transformation into a woman, his ensuing struggle with menstruation and gender identity, their strained separation, his public persona as a “woman‑man,” and her memory of a passionate encounter with a female lover at a glittering ball. Pilate’s Wife recounts witnessing Jesus (the Nazarene) enter Jerusalem, dreaming of his crucifixion, sending a warning to Pontius Pilate, observing his crowning with thorns and Pilate’s ceremonial hand‑washing, and concluding that he was not divine despite Pilate’s belief. Mrs Aesop recounts her husband Aesop’s constant, pretentious moralizing about animals, mocks his endless fables, and finally silences him by delivering a dark fable about a cock, an axe, and cutting off his tail, asserting her superiority. Mrs Sisyphus’s monologue introduces her as the wife of Sisyphus, describing his endless task of pushing a massive stone up a hill, her growing resentment, her feeling of isolation, and his mantra “Mustn’t shirk”.