The semiotic method provides us with a powerfully distinct interpretation of the tale, one that can be used to denote the construction and maintenance of society. Psychoanalysis of the tale shows how submission to instinct and pleasure, the id, will lead us to death. The man in the story takes no rational precautions to avoid disease when he meets a girl in a nightclub and becomes physically intimate with her. Instead, he willingly and happily involves himself in a purely physical relationship. After a month of subjection to his id, the man is given a death sentence-because of its incurability, AIDS might just as well be a knife in the heart.
Men fear death to such an extent that it is the consummate punishment for the 'wrong' way of life.
Psychoanalysis tells us that men should temper their natural drive towards pleasure with a rational awareness of deferred pleasure. That is, the man should not have intercourse with a woman until he is certain that doing so will not cost him his life. The story can also be analyzed for its meaning using the semiotic method. The lead character, economically successful but without a family, frequents a particular nightclub, where he meets a woman. Though neither the alternate social situation, nor the alternate familial structure is directly presented by the story, they can be inferred by the strong presence of their opposites.