As I was re-reading Cynthia Ozick's short story "The Shawl," I couldn't help but think of how the author may have subtly shown the differences of the amount of suffering each character was facing. For instance, Magda was represented with the least amount of suffering, Stella was represented with the most amount of suffering, and Rosa wasn't really characterized as suffering- maybe because it was like she was already dead.
Though, this is just a thought, maybe the author really was trying to characterize the characters with different amounts of suffering. There are a few quotes that show that Magda may have had the least amount of suffering. One being: "She looked into Magda's face through a gap in the shawl: a squirrel in a nest, safe, no one could reach her inside the little house of the shale's windings." Another quote that shows she may have suffered the least is, "Magda laughed at the shawl when the wind blew its corners." There could be many reasons why Magda suffered the least, but what I thought of was that she might be suffering the least because her life has always been this way; she was growing up in the time of the holocaust, and that's all she knew life to be. "Sometimes she laughed, but how could it be? Magda had never seen anyone laugh."
Stella may have suffered the most because she was old enough to potentially remember what life was like before the holocaust. Or maybe she was suffering more because Magda had the shawl, and the shawl protected Magda from the Nazis. Stella seems to be the most bitter about it all, "Rosa saw that Stella's heart was cold." And there's the one quote in the story that perhaps is the most significant quote in the whole story, "Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die."
To me, Rosa was not a very significant part of the story, and I think that maybe it's because Rosa did not seem afraid or sad, she seemed like she knew life was over. "Rosa knew Magda was going to die very soon; she should have been dead already..." Another quote that shows Rosa knew that they would die is, "Rosa saw that today Magda was going to die, and at the same time a fearful joy ran in Rosa's two palms..."
I have to say this is a really interesting take regarding grades of suffering portrayed by the main three characters in The Shawl. I didn't even think about the characters in the way, but it does make a lot of sense given the story Ozick was trying to write. There does seem to be a parallel though between the baby's uncharacteristic happiness given the environment, and the presence of the shawl, which is the very last touch of reality, happiness, shelter, and even sustenance available to the trio. Thus Stella might have indeed been the most unhappy. However this may not have been due to her own situation, but out of sheer jealousy for the situation of Magda. She realized that Magda's relative imperiousness to the conditions in concentration camp were directly relating to the fact that she possessed the shawl. Thus taking it would give her an escape physically (cold) and mentally (happiness or remembrance of a time before the war.
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