Lawyer Royall
He’s not named Lawyer, but he might as well be since that is how he is usually addressed. The name Royall speaks for itself and the fact that his actual first name is superfluous since he is known as “lawyer” all serve to implicate the same symbolic meaning: he is the epitome of patriarchal dominion in the society Charity wishes to escape.
The Wedding Ring
A wedding ring typically signifies union and bonding. In the case of the ring Royall gives Charity it becomes a symbol of not of uniting, but of loss. The ring is too big for her finger, its sight fills her with a desire for flight and she has been haunted by a sense of dread since wearing it. The ring is not typical symbol, but in fact the exact opposite.
Season Imagery
The imagery associated with the seasons is the overriding symbolism of the story, commencing with the very title. The book opens with a girl standing beneath a “springlike” sky of a June day in image of innocence. From this symbolic optimism, the girl’s emotions will follow her fall from innocence through the symbolic imagery of fall and the hopelessness associated with winter.
Mirrors
The symbolism of the mirror begins right on the first page with an image of Charity looking into and longing once again for blue eyes like another girl. Later, she’ll look at her in a mirror reflecting an image of herself wearing a hat secretly tailored for her. A mirror appears again just before her nuptials, but this time she cannot look at her reflection. The collective use of a mirror creates a symbolic motif of her beauty being the only thing she has to offer society; a fact which ultimately she can no longer bear to face.
Ten Dollars
Royall drops a ten-dollar bill into Charity’s lap, with the suggestion she buy herself a pretty bonnet that will make other girls envious. Harney spends the same amount to treat Charity to an electric boat ride around the lake for “twenty minutes of pleasure.” The two men in Charity’s life are making claims to her and the ten dollars is a symbol that they both see their courtship in transactional terms—even if the actual terms of the transaction differs emotionally.
