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Rosa is a symbol of the things the doctor has sacrificed for his career. Although she physically appears in the story only briefly, Rosa is the only named character in the story, indicating her significance. She is present in the doctor’s thoughts during the night while he is on his journey as a reminder of all he has given up. She is innocent and accommodating as she tries to help him find the horses, and ultimately becomes a martyr to the doctor’s wishes. When she is attacked by the groom, the doctor does nothing to defend or help her beyond one weak protest, and he does not stop the groom from staying behind with her even though he knows the man will attack her. This failure to act establishes Rosa as a victim and a sacrifice. When the doctor alternately believes the patient is not sick at all and then believes him to be dying and beyond his help, Rosa becomes the embodiment of the sacrifices the doctor has made to try to keep his practice going and serve his patients even when the sacrifices are not worth it.  

Rosa represents the doctor’s repressed desires. The groom is a symbol of the doctor’s own animal nature, making Rosa the victim of what the doctor would like to do if left unrestrained. Rosa’s only line in the story comes when the doctor kicks open the pigsty, allowing the groom to crawl out as if being birthed from filth. She observes that no one can ever truly know what things people have inside of their own house, indicating how the groom represents what’s inside the doctor and, by extension, how she represents the doctor’s hidden desires. Rosa is later linked to the wound on the patient which the doctor refers to as a rose. Both Rosa and the wound symbolize the festering, lustful, bestial nature inside the doctor. Because the doctor understands that he cannot save Rosa or heal the wound on the patient, he shows how acknowledging his repressed desires leads to his own death.

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