46 pages • 1 hour read
Patricia HighsmithThe Price of Salt
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1952A 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
The Telephone
In The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech (Nebraska University Press, 1989), the American queer theorist Avital Ronell presents the telephone as a jarring medium. The phone allows people to call one another and spread information, which she compares to spreading disease. As the phone lets a person hear another person’s voice without seeing their body, the medium also disembodies people and creates a haunting environment.
In The Price of Salt, the meaning behind the telephone changes. It starts as a positive symbol. Via the phone, Carol speaks to Therese at Frankenberg’s and arranges their first official meeting. In a sense, the phone brings them together. However, as the story unfolds, Therese and Carol experience the disquieting impact of the telephone, frequently receiving bad news about Harge’s actions. After Carol goes back to New York, the telephone becomes increasingly linked with unpleasant interactions. Over the phone, Therese expresses her love for Carol, and Carol replies with a flippant whistle. Another time, Carol sounds “harassed,” worrying that someone is tapping the phone. The stressful call causes Therese to wonder, “Was this the way they talked together? Were these the words they used?” (226). The phone perpetuates Therese’s feelings of alienation. It makes her feel strange, like she and Carol aren’t the same people they are in person.
After Abby calls Therese to tell her that she can't call Carol, Therese gets fed up and asks the hotel to decline the long-distance calls. Her approach toward the telephone showcases her newfound autonomy and power. She doesn’t let the phone victimize her; she stands up to it and lets it go.
Waterloo
In Western culture, Waterloo symbolizes defeat or surrender. The idiom is rooted in French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s loss at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, which ended his empiric aspirations. In Waterloo, Iowa, Carol and Therese have sex for the first time. Thus, Waterloo symbolizes the women surrendering to their passion and making love. The experience is transcendent and defies words. Put another way, Waterloo represents their defeat at the hands of their irresistible attraction. Conversely, Waterloo also represents a loss for Carol and Therese, the turning point that dooms their relationship. Therese notices the detective for the first time in Waterloo (though she doesn’t find him suspicious yet), and it turns out he recorded what took place in Waterloo, with Carol later telling Therese, “Yes, they have a few conversations recorded—namely Waterloo” (227). Harge weaponizes the tape against Carol and gets full custody of Rindy. Carol tells Therese, “Everything was very simple this morning—I simply surrendered” (227). Though Waterloo isn’t the only reason for her surrender—her past relationships and Therese’s letter are other factors—it plays a key role, so Waterloo represents a conventionally dispiriting defeat, as well as the end of Carol’s old life.
Love at First Sight
Love at first sight is a motif that emphasizes the book’s idea that love—or at least attraction—is always immediate. Therese sees Carol in the store, and she’s immediately possessed by her grace, beauty, and fiery eyes. She longs for Carol to continue the interaction, and when she leaves, the immediate rush of love pushes Therese to send her a Christmas card from Frankenberg’s, kickstarting their affair. While Therese only falls in love once in the novel, the motif emerges in its absence in the strained relationships between Therese and Richard and Carol and Harge. Love either blooms immediately or doesn’t take root. Richard mistakenly thinks Therese will learn to love him, and Harge, too, hopes Carol won’t go through with the divorce.
At the same time, love at first sight separates a person from their mind and other relationships and isolates them. Therese becomes enthralled by her love and the elusive intensity of her bond with Carol. When love at first sight strikes, she doesn’t act rationally. She does things like send an unknown customer a card from work. As Therese waits for Carol to pick her up for the first time, the narrator states, “Carol was a quarter of an hour late. If she didn't come, she would probably keep on waiting, all day and into the night” (47). This behavior and type of relationship isn’t sustainable, represented by this and other instances when Therese prioritizes Carol over all else, even to her detriment. Thus, love at first supports the theme of Love, Obsession, and Learning to Let Go. For their bond to work, Therese and Carol need more than love at first sight—they require a durable love, which means interacting with other people, doing different things, and letting each other move freely in the world.
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By Patricia Highsmith
