ed man who endangers his happiness with a fling. It seems evident that this sort of behavior is seen as normal for the male--males are stereotyped as eager to try other sexual partners while rationalizing to themselves that they are still faithful to their wives because they come home afterward. In the age of AIDs, what the man has to worry about under normal circumstances is getting a disease and bringing it home, but in this film, his worries are quite different as he finds a woman who will not accept the rules and who will not let go.
The character of Alex is the one with a gender role that has been twisted out of shape. She is the strongest character in the film and the controlling influence over the lives of everyone else. The wife is also a strong character in a more traditional role, that of mother and protector of her child. Alex, on the other hand, is the woman as destroyer. She has as many male characteristics in her makeup as female. It is significant that her name is ambiguous and
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