Window (Symbol)
O’Neill’s stage directions to set the scene for Act Two say that the shades are drawn, “giving the windows a suggestion of lifeless closed eyes and making the room seem even more withdrawn from life than before” (78). The closed shades over the window symbolize the veil of death pulled down over the eyes of Leeds, which we will learn about a few moments later.
Father (Symbol)
Marsden, Darrell, and Evans converge on the house after Leeds dies, and “Marsden unconsciously takes the Professor’s place behind the table” (86). This is a symbolic act because for Nina, Marsden becomes her new father (figure).
Disorder (Symbol)
In Act Four, the scene returns to the Professor’s home where Nina and Sam now live. The Professor’s table “has become neurotic,” “littered,” the wastepaper basket “overflowing,” the space one of “disarrangement” (113). All of these things symbolize the disorder at the heart of Evan’s psyche and his marriage; it might also symbolize the insanity lurking within him.
House (Symbol)
The Evanses' house is a “queer” one, a “hideous old place,” with stained wallpaper, a big, “misproportioned dining room” and a floor with “smeary brown with a dark red design blurred into it” (98). All of this symbolizes the disorder, the wrongness, the grotesqueness of the Evans lineage.
Rowing (Symbol)
Rowing is traditionally associated with carving out one's path, moving ahead in life, human effort and human strength. It is thus a perfect literal sport for the athletic Gordon but also a perfect symbolic one, as he is rowing away from his father(s) and mother into his adulthood.
