The relationship

The 2 main and probably the only characters of the story are Burge McCall himself and his wife.

In my opinion Burge is somehow a humoristic character. He hates his wife. What kind of a husband would hate his wife and yet live with her under the same roof? This is very ironic. The story says that he has been married twice before and unsurprisingly his ex-es ran away from him and got divorced. He was also very cheap with his wife. He didn't agree to buy her any presents or treats, but was very generous with himself and other women. He was stingy, selfish, self-centered, rude, impolite and probably every other negative characteristics you can imagine. Mrs. McCall was very different, she was very calm person, never had much to say, she was that kind of woman the other women always called Mrs. because not many people knew her. She was tagged by the town's people as Mrs. McCall. At the end we can see that she was very smart too, she made plans for the long term and she succeeded. She came from Peppersauce Bottom, just south of Santa Fe rail yards. She came from a poor place and it is said that the reason she married him was to get out of that place.

They had been together for 3 years and 4 months and for a year and 2 months he didn’t like the way she looked at him. He started hating his wife, which is very unnatural for a couple's relationship. She was very quiet; she didn't even answer him when he called her names. It was very odd for him. He was used to women that called him names right back when he called them.

The way Mrs. McCall looked at him made him start hating her after only 2 months of marriage. Until one day, after 2 years of marriage, Burge McCall slapped Mrs. McCall on the face. She rapidly wiped out the place he slapped her and said "McCall you are a big rat. Some day you are going to regret what you have done". Burge was somewhat disappointed with her reaction. She didn't curse him or slapped him back.

One day Burge dropped into the drug store, which was owned by Mrs.Mcalls brother, to get a drink. The druggist there told him that his wife bought rat poison. At first he wasn't nervous but after a while he realized that the rat she was looking for might be him. He became very worried and began to eat and drink outside. He feared she might use the poison on him and kill him. He started behaving nicely to her because he was afraid and from that point their relationship just got better.

I think that their relationship is very funny and ironic. Most of the "just married" couples begin to get sick and tired of each other after some years of marriage. But the McCall's relationship started very badly and just got better with time. It is funny because the one and only thing that turned their relationship upside down was a simple pound of rat poison.