Ricardo, the narrator suddenly realizes that his wife no longer loves her, she despises. It will deplete streamline this distance, thus stifling his wife (and the reader) by a continuous questioning. Drowned in his analysis, he does not see his faults: his renunciation, his indecision, his cowardice. He has neither the courage to resign, nor to break the course of events. There is this pathetic intellectual who sold his talent and (symbolically) his wife bourgeois needs.
Human psychology, women and couples are finely detailed and speak to those who have experienced this type of event. The hero is obsessed with certain thoughts that can weigh down the narrative. Analysis of Moravia is a remarkable subtlety.
