Chapter 7
Symbol
Symbol a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning. A Symbol usually
contains multiple meanings and associations.
Ex. In Melville’s Moby-Dick, the great white whale means more than an
aquatic mammal. He also suggests more than the devil. The great whale,
as the story unfolds, comes to imply an amplitude of meanings, among them
the forces of nature and the whole created universe.
Symbols in fiction are not generally abstract terms such as love or
truth, but Likely to be perceptible objects (or words descriptions that
cause us to imagine them).
Ex. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose fir Emily”, Miss Emily’s invisible
watch ticking at the end of a golden chain not only indicates the passage of
time, but also gests that time passes without even being noticed by the
watch’s owner, and the golden chain carries suggestions of wealth and
authority.
often the symbol we meet in fiction are inanimate objects, but other
things also may function symbolically
Ex. In Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”, the café is nit
merely a café, but an island of refuge from night, chaos, loneliness, old age,
and impending death.
Sometimes symbolic characters make brief cameo appearances.
Such characters often are not well-rounded and fully known, but are
seen fleeting and remain slightly mysterious. Usually such a symbolic
character is more a portrait than a person—or somewhat portraitlike.
Ex. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose fir Emily”, Miss Emily twice appears at
a window of her house “like the carven torso of an idol in an a niche.”
Though Faulkner invests Miss Emily with life and vigor, he also clothes her
in symbolic hints: she seems almost to personify the vanishing aristocracy
of the antebellum South, still maintaining a black servant and being
ruthlessly betrayed by a moneymaking Yankee.
A symbolic actAn action whose significance goes well beyond its literal
meaning.
Ex. Before setting out in pursuit of the great white whale, Melville’s
Captain Ahab in Moby-dick deliberately snaps his tobacco pipe and throws
it away, as if to suggest (among other things) that he will let no pleasure or
pastime distract him from his vengeance.
Allegory In a simple allegory, characters and other elements often stand for
other definite meanings, which are often abstractions.
 Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons,
and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie
outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral,
social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often
personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.
Ex. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, the tale’s main
female character, Faith, represents the religious virtue suggested by her
name.
*Why do writers have to symbolize?
One advantage of a symbol is that it is so compact, and yet so fully laden.
Ex. Both starkly concrete and slightly mysterious, like Miss Emily’s invisible
ticking watch, it may impress us with all the force of something beheld in a
dream or in a nightmare. The watch suggests, among other things, the slow and
invisible passage of time.
Ex
*How do you recognize a symbol in fiction?
Fortunately, the storyteller often gives the symbol particular emphasis.
It may be mentioned repeatedly throughout the story; it may even supply the
story with a title. At times, a crucial symbol will open a story or end it.
Homework # 7
1) “The Yellow Wallpaper” is told by an unreliable narrator. What are the
possible reasons for the writer to present the story from this viewpoint.
2)
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the writing style and the overall tone give the
readers clues to the protagonist’s deteriorating mental condition. Discuss
what you have observed.
Writing style:
Overall tone:
3) “The Yellow Wallpaper” examines the role of women in nineteenth-century
society. From the story, what can you find of the society at that time,
including the relationship between husbands and wives, the economic and
social dependence of women on men, and the repression of female
individuality.
Husband and wife:
Economic and social dependence:
Repression of female individuality:
4) “The Yellow Wallpaper.” is a story full of symbols.
their symbolic meanings.
The yellow wallpaper:
The nursery:
The barred window:
The nailed-down bed:
Please discuss about
5) Write a summary of the story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”