Summary Of The Hand By Gabrielle Colette

The Hand by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette follows the transformation of the main character’s opinion of her newly wed husband. Her emotions towards her husband's hand changes from ecstacy, to disgust, and finally to acceptance and resignation. When the husband starts to fall asleep, his wife is wide awake with excitement. The feeling when his arm “had slipped his big arm under the small of her slim, adolescent back,” lights up her face. Then she sees how his big “and strong hand lay on the sheet next to,” (Colette) her own self and she suddenly feels protected and content. But then she sees something different about his hand, it started to change before her eyes. Seeing this transformation from something comforting to something disgusting,
and the wife begins to question and regret her spontaneous marriage. She says, “And I’ve kissed that hand! … How horrible! Haven’t I ever looked at it?” The woman just stares at the contorted hand for the rest of the night, and slowly she tries to accept the situation she has gotten herself in. Hours later when the sun comes back up, her husband lovingly offers her toast; first, her skin starts to crawl but then she conceded and resigns to the hand: “Then she concealed her fear, bravely subdued herself, and, beginning of her life of duplicity, of resignation, and of a lowly, delicate diplomacy, she leaned over and humbly kissed the monstrous hand.” Over the course of one night a wife reconstructs her feelings regarding her husband’s hand, from excitement and ecstasy, to disgust, fear, and regret, and, finally, to acceptance and compliance.