Bird-man

See Very old man with enormous wings

Elisenda

In her marriage to Pelayo, Elisenda takes an active part in decision-making. Her husband runs to get her as soon as he discovers the old man, and they try to make sense of him together, apparently sharing the same reactions. It is she who first conceives of charging the villagers admission to see the "angel," an idea which makes the couple wealthy. At the end of the story, she is the mistress of an impressive mansion, dressed in the finest fashions. Yet the old man seems to be a constant annoyance to her, a feeling that only intensifies over time. He is useless and infuriating to her, "dragging himself about here and there like a stray dying man"; she seems to be constantly shooing him out of her way. She eventually grows so "exasperated and unhinged" that she screams that...