The bell (Motif)
The bell represents social conformity.
Sure Thing (Motif)
The phrase “Sure Thing” has multiple meanings: don’t worry about it; you’re welcome; that’s ok; I don’t mind; a polite “Yes”; and a noun describing an absolute certainty, a guaranteed success. In the end, it leaves the play on a high note. It’s also an ironic phrase, because the audience knows that the couple has endured many failures in parallel lives, and so were, on a meta level, far from a sure thing.
The Sound and the Fury (Motif)
This book, which the two characters discuss, is a figure for questions of class. When Bill knows who wrote the book, it is a sign that Bill is educated, which allows him to move forward in his relationship with Betty. Book learning thus has an instrumental social function. It also represents intellectual depth. When Bill knows who wrote the book, but hasn’t read it, or changes the subject to the Mets, that’s a sign that the Bill and Betty of that iteration are not a match, because their interests lie too far apart. The phrase, in its original context in Shakespeare's play Macbeth, represents the human life’s lack of meaning.
Harvard (Symbol)
The most prestigious American university, and thus an elite class marker.
Woody Allen (Motif)
A filmmaker famous for funny films about relationships, Woody Allen here stands in for the genre of the romantic comedy.
(Dislike of) Brussels Sprouts (Symbol)
Symbol of generic popular taste.
Cleveland and Pittsburgh (Symbols)
Symbols of lower-class status.
Entenmann’s (Symbol)
A symbol of ubiquity.
Oral Roberts University (Symbol)
A symbol of southern Christian culture.
Pakistan (Symbol)
Symbolizes someplace so far away as to make a relationship impossible.
Paris (Symbol)
A symbol of romance and existentialism.
Westchester County (Symbol)
A symbol of the upper-middle class.
Peace Corps (Symbol)
Represents pretending to be a free-spirit while actually conforming to social expectations.
Two-point, three-point, four-point [Grade Point Average] (Symbol)
These grade-point averages are symbols of social ranking by academic success.
Etch A Sketch (Symbol)
The toy is a symbol of the baby-boom generation, and thus of shared demographics.
