Although she’s the main character of both Ozick’s short story and novella, Rosa is in some sense two separate characters. In keeping with the almost allegorical tone of “The Shawl,” Ozick initially provides few personal details about Rosa; her upper-middle class origins, for instance, only come to light in “Rosa.” Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Rosa in “The Shawl” is the relative tranquility with which she faces life in a concentration camp; at one point, Ozick even describes her as a “floating angel” (3). Rosa’s equanimity may in part be a survival mechanism—that is, a way of coping with extreme stress—but it also reflects the fact that Rosa, in her daughter Magda, has something to live for. Although Rosa knows that Magda is unlikely to survive life in the camp, she is able to find joy and meaning in keeping her daughter alive from one moment to the next, and in imagining the ways she might be able to save Magda.

The fact that Rosa can’t ultimately protect Magda from her violent death lays the groundwork for the very different Rosa who appears in the follow-up novella. Now approaching 60, Rosa is a bitter and paranoid woman whose life revolves entirely around her dead daughter, whom she regularly writes letters to.