Collecting as a theme

Clegg is a collector of butterflies, an amateur entomologist, and his desire to collect and preserve both butterflies and Miranda is a central theme of the novel. He likes to observe objects from afar, dead and sanitized and without any complicating emotions. Several times Miranda remarks that her presence is becoming unwieldy because she keeps expressing her emotions and trying to escape. Miranda also hates the idea of collecting, whether the collection contains great artworks or simply Clegg's butterflies.

In the case of art, Miranda believes that it is a crime to merely catalog and classify all the beautiful pieces of art in the world, to hide them in private collections and not let them be enjoyed by vital, living people. To her, the idea of a collection robs objects of individuality, confining them in categories. In the case of Clegg's butterflies, Miranda views collection not as an accomplishment but as a massacre, since Clegg killed all the future butterflies that could have come from his collected specimens. The differences in Miranda's and Clegg's views about collection illuminate core aspects of their characters.