Many of the other tales that we read had gender issues that were discussed in class and when I read this tale I actually noticed that the roles seemed reversed because when the man in the beginning first sees the "angel" he is frightened and runs to get his wife. I just thought it was interesting how different the gender roles seemed to be in this tale compared to the others.
I also noticed that the wise woman in the story advised the family to kill him because he was there to take their child but it said that "..they did not have the heart to club him to death..." pg 204 and I thought it was interesting that they could keep him locked in a cage and make money off of him but they couldn't kill for their child (not that they should have killed him). In a sense the people are fighting the natural way of things especially if they're refusing death and they have no fear of punishment which kind of makes me think that they haven't just lost their faith but they are purposefully repelling it.
With the reaction of the woman at the end when the angel leaves and she just feels relief I felt that we didn't really know her character that well and maybe the angel didn't know her either and that was why there wasn't a change in the relationship between the family and the angel. It was like they were disconnected which could relate back to her not having any faith. That could explain her feeling of relief because maybe she felt guilty for refusing an angel and treating him so badly.
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