The old woman lives in the apartment below the girl with the dark glasses. After the hospital burns down and the blind inmates escape, the group led by the doctor’s wife decides to visit each of their homes in turn, starting with the closest: the apartment where the girl with the dark glasses used to live with her parents. When they arrive, they find the building empty except for one blind old woman living downstairs, who managed to hide out when the Government took everyone else to quarantine. However, the old woman has lived the last several weeks isolated and covered in filth, eating anything she can find in the back garden—including raw rabbit and chicken meat, which is strewn around her apartment. The old woman helps the visitors get into the girl’s apartment, and in return they give her some of the food they have managed to collect. The old woman is perpetually suspicious of the visitors, and particularly of the dog of tears, who kills one of the woman’s hens. However, the old woman is also incredibly grateful for the food that the visitors provide her, and the others realize that her crankiness is the result of her isolation and the dangers that have surrounded her since the Government quarantined everyone who surrounded her. In fact, when they leave, she cries for her own future, and readers might wonder if the doctor’s wife is cruel to leave the old woman behind rather than caring for her as part of her new family. When the doctor, the doctor’s wife, and the girl with the glasses return to visit the girl’s old house, they find the old woman dead outside the building, holding the girl’s keys, as though being part of the girl’s family was her dying wish.
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The old woman Character Timeline in Blindness
The timeline below shows where the character The old woman appears in Blindness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 14
Downstairs, however, “a gruff voice” answers the door. It belongs to an old woman , who explains that the girl’s parents—and the woman’s own family—were taken away just after...
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...tells her to invite everyone upstairs. The doctor’s wife leads everyone up the stairs, where the old woman approaches them, frustratedly demands her food, and then becomes hysterical when nobody replies to her....
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...not until the girl and the doctor’s wife go downstairs to bring some food to the old woman . The woman complains that they are wasting food on the dog, but she thanks...
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...wife points out that this is both lonely and dangerous: the girl could become like the old woman downstairs or have to compete with her for food. The girl says that she does...
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In the morning, the boy with the squint visits the bathroom, but he discovers that the old woman has long since plugged it up. Instead, he goes in the back yard alongside everyone...
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Just before leaving, the seven survivors give the old lady some more food and the keys to the girl’s flat, and then they watch the...
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...organizes the group into two lines and leads them with a rope. When they leave, the old woman cries because her life is lonely and meaningless. Throughout the city, blind people are still...
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Chapter 16
When the group reaches the house where the girl with the glasses lived, they find the old woman who lived downstairs dead, with much of her body eaten by stray animals, outside. They...
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...his wife why she said that, but she admits that she doesn’t know. They lower the old woman ’s body into the grave, and the doctor’s wife fills the grave and ensures that...
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