58 pages • 1 hour read
Henry WoodEast Lynne
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1861A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Isabel’s Cross
At the start of the plot, Isabel has a treasured necklace—a modest jeweled cross on a thin gold chain—that her late mother gave to her. Isabel is wearing the necklace when she meets Francis Levinson for the first time, and he accidentally breaks it. This foreshadows Isabel’s fate: The cross necklace symbolizes Isabel’s innocence and integrity, which Francis’s wily manipulation and seduction will destroy. Indeed, Isabel herself comments on the moment’s symbolism, lamenting, “I am sure it must be an evil omen” (56). The fragility of the delicate necklace adds to the symbolism: It can easily be broken beyond repair, which reflects how quickly a Victorian woman could lose her social position and be ostracized. Isabel isn’t intentionally negligent with the necklace, but she does not carefully safeguard it, which symbolizes her later vulnerability to Francis’s seduction.
Since Isabel inherited the necklace from her mother, it represents her education and connection to her role models; she has been reared to be respectable and refined and to embody Victorian ideals of femininity. However, the necklace’s symbolism also implies that Isabel’s lack of female role models renders her vulnerable. Her mother is dead, and most female characters of similar social standing tend to be jealous or resentful of Isabel when they encounter her. Isabel has no confidante or mentor to help her see what a threat Francis poses.
The cross also symbolizes Isabel’s enduring connection to her Christian faith, even as she sometimes flouts Christian teachings. Isabel comes to deeply regret her decision to abandon her husband and children, and she never loses contact with her beliefs. Even when her young son is tragically dying, Isabel takes comfort in the belief that she will be reunited with him in heaven. While the necklace (a physical, material object) can be broken, the faith it symbolizes cannot. Likewise, Isabel’s reputation can be damaged, but her inner love and goodness do not change even when she makes mistakes.
Francis Levinson’s Diamond
When Richard first describes the man whom he knew as “Thorn” (who is gradually revealed to be Francis), he notes that the man wore flashy and prominent accessories, including “diamond shirt-studs, diamond rings, diamond pins” (97). This detail contributes significantly to further investigation into the identity of this man since Barbara later suspects Captain Thorn due to “a diamond ring [that] gleamed with a light that was positively dazzling” (235). The diamonds symbolize Francis’s arrogance and entitlement, which stem from his aristocratic background. Even while using a pseudonym to protect his identity, Francis flaunts his wealth and status by wearing diamond accessories. This ostentatious display reveals that Francis is reckless and does not believe he will ever be held accountable for his actions; he displays a pattern with Afy, Blanche (the sister of the woman he eventually marries), and eventually Isabel, seducing and discarding women without any regard for the impact on them. Even more damningly, Francis avoids responsibility for killing Hallijohn until he is forcibly held accountable. The showiness of a diamond glinting in the sun reflects Francis’s reckless disregard for consequence and his sense of entitlement.
The diamonds also symbolize Francis’s ability to manipulate and literally dazzle others with an impression of wealth and social status. Afy, for example, explicitly falls for him because she perceives him as a social superior. Though Francis does come from an aristocratic family (he eventually inherits a title), he does not actually have much money and repeatedly gets into severe debt. The diamonds thus constitute a false advertisement of social position, obliquely commenting on the hollowness of aristocratic rank generally. Archibald is a working professional who enjoys his employment as a lawyer; Isabel’s father was likewise a lawyer but ended up largely corrupted and bankrupt after inheriting a title. Francis is a villainous aristocrat who believes that laws do not apply to him and flaunts his social status. Finally, the diamonds symbolize a villainous form of masculinity; Francis’s superficiality and focus on his appearance reveal him to be a rake and dandy—a womanizer, but also somewhat “feminine” and therefore suspect in the eyes of Victorian society.
Disguised Appearance
Many characters disguise their appearance; this motif adds suspense to a melodramatic plot and renders dramatic irony possible. The motif also contributes to a sense of uncertainty—reality is often hidden, and appearances are unreliable—which develops themes of both False Perceptions of Innocence and Guilt and The Anxieties and Opportunities of Unstable Social Positions.
Isabel offers the novel’s most notable example of disguise. She disguises her appearance so successfully that her children, former husband, and lover all fail to recognize her. Her appearance is genuinely changed after the railway accident: Her hair goes gray, she is left with facial scars that alter her features, and her height changes due to a leg injury. To add to her disguise, Isabel wears heavy glasses that conceal her eyes and dresses in dowdy and unfashionable clothing. The combined effect allows Isabel to move largely unnoticed around people who once knew her intimately. Significantly, Isabel’s ability to disguise her appearance relies on her transformation from a very beautiful woman to a plain one. It is also impacted by class; without her jewels and beautiful gowns, Isabel is essentially a different woman. Her subterfuge facilitates the novel’s plot, but it also hints at the anxiety surrounding the governess figure: an outsider who nevertheless had access to intimate domestic spaces and whose class status was often ambivalent.
Because he is a wanted criminal, Richard Hare sometimes disguises his identity, especially when he is near West Lynne. Richard’s purported crime (murder) is legal, while Isabel’s (adultery and the abandonment of her children) is social, but after their respective downfalls, both Richard and Isabel are driven to conceal their identities to maintain connections to people they love, which points to the rigidity of Victorian social mores.
Overall, the motif of disguised appearances creates an unsettling atmosphere because it implies that other people are fundamentally unknowable: One could fail to recognize one’s own spouse or child if the conditions of disguise were right. In fact, this precise situation unfolds in the novel, as Richard’s disguise means that when he accidentally collides with his own father, he is able to remain unrecognized. Nonetheless, the narrative also highlights an uncanny sense of recognition that haunts encounters involving a disguised individual. Cornelia repeatedly notices an unsettling resemblance between Madame Vine and Isabel Vane and cannot shake her suspicions even as she dismisses them. Likewise, Francis conceals his identity as Afy’s lover and Hallijohn’s murderer for some time, but the truth eventually emerges. While characters strive for, and maintain disguised identities for some amount of time, the truth invariably eventually emerges, reinforcing the social positions and relationships that have been destabilized over the course of the story.
