Wheelchairs
This is a story overflowing with symbols. Unlike in most stories, however, the symbolism is not placed there for the purpose of illumination and expansion in the traditional sense. What the author has done here is basically created an opportunity for the reader to sit in the psychoanalysts’ chair rather than lie down as the patient on his couch. The dream symbolism must be combined with the symbols in the narrative itself to reach an interpretation of what the dream might actually mean. This is necessary because neither the bride nor the narrator provide interpretation. As for the husband, he declares the dream absurd, boring and not worthy of decoding. His only moment of interest occurs with the later half-hearted query of why were her boyfriends in wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are traditionally a symbol of a deep-seated anxiety over the helplessness of being dependent upon another in dream analysis.
Seatbelts
There is no actual mention of seatbelts in the woman’s dream, but it is the cry of “Don’t forget your seatbelts!” which brings out of her sleep and also awakens her sleeping husband. As the story unfolds, the woman is presented as a woman who is seeking comfort and security while at the same fearing those very things. Seatbelts are a natural symbol for security, but the actual meaning is left for the reader to interpret.
Yellow
The unnamed protagonist’s favorite color is yellow. When going through their wedding gifts to decide what to keep and what is expendable, everything colored yellow—regardless of what it may be—goes into the keep pile. In psychology, yellow is associated with intellect, rationality and a desire to learn. At the same time it is proven in interior design to foster a sense of comfort and serenity.
Blue Mountain Pottery
Blue Mountain pottery the couple receive as wedding gift becomes an important symbol not organically as something that is inherently meaningful, but rather as result of how it is incorporated. As opposed to all the yellow items, the Blue Mountain pottery is immediately placed in the rejection pile by virtue of common agreement of both of them. The story concludes, however, on the image of the wife writing a thank-you note to Lillian, who gave gifted them the pottery, with a lie: “John and I just love the Blue Mountain pottery.” On this note, the pottery instantly becomes an iconic symbol of the wife’s hardcore propensity toward repression and suppression of aspects of existence she is not comfortable facing.
John in the Ocean
While she is writing that thank-you note, she is distracted by the sight of her husband going into the Atlantic Ocean for a swim. As he does so, she is suddenly overcome by the anxiety unleashed whenever repressed thoughts and fears manage to rise to the surface during moments of consciousness. The constant repetition of waves driving toward the shore matched the constant repetition of John moving his body in the exact same way to avoid being overwhelmed by them becomes symbolic of her deepest fears that drive the processes of unconscious repression and conscious acts of repression, representing a future of “one week following another, expectations fulfilled in easy categories, and the hypnotic monotony of predictable responses.”
