walks out on Yadwiga at the last stage of her pregnancy. As Tamara even typed his

dissertation, taking care of the product of intellectual labor, now Tamara tends to and

becomes the guardian of his baby, the outcome of his befuddled and ill-fated love. But in

taking over Herman's duty and acting on his behalf, she ends up becoming a mother

again, even if vicariously. Tamara's altruistic behaviors curiously bring her back to the

source of her grief, motherhood, and make her live again as a mother. Unlike Herman,

who compulsively repeats his previous behaviors to his destruction, Tamara, in the

equally odd turn of events reminiscent of her previous life before the war, seems to have

tamed the sinister force of her trauma to her benefit.

 The novel concludes with Tamar's final wish to marry Herman in the next world.

Actually, although Tamara's final remark is hard to understand and leaves lots of room

for different interpretations, in many ways it puts the entire novel in perspective. Her

remark might be easily interpreted as a sign of a grief-stricken wife's unshaken devotion

and loyalty. However, in light of Herman's repeated deceptive and unfaithful behaviors

that have clearly proved his incompetence as father and husband, her wish seems to take

on a rather obsessive character. Frances Vargas Gibbon interprets Tamara's last hope as a

"threat" and asserts that she is "the worst enemy an escapist like Herman can have."244

Even after his disappearance and in the hypothetical world of imagination, Herman is not

free from Tamara's tenacious grip. Additionally, her wish to marry Herman again in the

next world darkens, to a considerable extent, the prospect of hope and regeneration that

comes with the birth of Yadwiga's daughter.

 Yet, in a sense, it is both ironic and understandable that Tamara, the personification

of the never-healing traumatic wound, has such an obsessive loyalty and attachment to