The wave is one of two main characters of the story, and its largest symbol. Paz personifies the wave as a woman in love who starts an impulsive affair with the narrator after his visit to the sea. A wave can be both a gentle and a deadly force, which is exactly how Paz describes the pair’s love. At the start, she is bright and sweet, literally bringing light and joy to all things she touches—the excitement and delight of a burgeoning love. As the narrator becomes more familiar with his lover, he can see through her “transparent” water. When the wave grows bored, though, she seeks excitement from the fish (symbolic of other lovers) and becomes inconsolable. As the pair’s passion dies, so does the wave’s human qualities—she turns into a statue of ice, an inanimate object the narrator no longer feels anything towards.

Paz uses a vast variety of imagery to immerse readers in this transformation, and the immense power he gives the wave underscores just how powerful love and infatuation can be. In one instance, the narrator feels nearly drowned by the wave, demonstrating how consuming a relationship (especially an abusive one) can become.