Describe symbolism in Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault

"Women in Their Beds" is named for Angela's symbolic way of thinking about the commonalties between women's lives. Her ideas about women and their beds are multifaceted. Beds are associated with sleep and dreams. They are an illogical space where ego boundaries become fluid. The women Angela meets are dreamlike figures, symbolizing aspects of her own past and future. As Angela assigns institutional beds to the women on the ward, she thinks about how women lack agency in their own lives. She forms a theory that women are "inseparable from their beds." Beds represent women's role in society, which is bound by their biological destiny and their most intimate relations with others. This relates to women's roles as sex objects and as child-bearers—both of which are potentially sources of power and joy but, in Angela's experience, more often sources of impotence and loss.