“I love her passionately with a morbid intensity; madly as one can only love a woman who never responds to our love with anything but an eternally uniform, eternally calm, stony smile.”
Severin is a peculiar character, a man who is not afraid to admit that he wants a woman to dominate him. What is more interesting is the idea that he does not want to be loved in return. As the quote from above reveals, the colder his female companion is, the more he grows to love her and his desire to cater to every whim grows exponentially. This quote also has the purpose of transmitting the idea that for some men, the chase is much more important than being loved by a woman and that when a woman acts disinterested, this makes them want her even more.
"Never feel secure with the woman you love, for there are more dangers in woman's nature than you imagine."
Wanda tries to help Severin in her own way and tries to make him understand that women are not the perfect creatures he envisions. In fact, as Wanda points out, all women are cunning and not even the feelings of affection one woman may have for a man can stop her from hurting him. As Wanda points out, a woman is interested in self-preservation and in making sure she had a comfortable life. Everything else pales in the light of this need and a woman is willing to sacrifice everything to achieve her end.
“A slap in the face is more effective than ten lectures. It makes you understand very quickly.”
Severin reaches this conclusion at the end of the novel when he realizes that despite doing everything Wanda wanted him to do, she was still not attracted to him, This realization came as a slap in the face for Severin who wanted to believe that as long as he listens to Wands, she will love him. While there were warning signs before this incident, Severin refused to knowledge them and chose to live in a lie. Unfortunately, when reality was staring his right in the face, he was no longer able to ignore what he knew was the truth and made changes in his life to protect himself accordingly.
