Family and a loving home
For Dorothy, life was a nightmare following her mother's death, and this was especially true before she was finally able to spend time with her brother William in a stable living environment. The living environment alone wasn't enough; it was the shared love and support between her and her brother that made the difference. Her experience of family love was critical in her development of her feelings of finally being at home. This provides rest that helps her to heal.
Nature as a support system
When William goes on walks with Dorothy through the country, she reports feeling strangely connected to nature in a restorative way, as if nature itself were reaching into her life to assist her. She says that William's poetry notices many of these sublime feelings, which is sometimes more synchronous than she can explain easily. She feels that when she is nature, she is more peaceful and integrated.
The allegory of community
After developing a home base in Grasmere, Dorothy undergoes a symbolic transition into a community. Before, she was floating around unattached, lifted out of the order of community into the chaos of mourning, often alone. But now, she is finally reintegrating herself into a community. She begins meeting the town one by one. She meets Leech Gatherer, from Wordsworth's poetry, and Gatherer shares his own story of suffering with her. The journey makes her less lonely, because she understands the universality of suffering and loss.
Illness as a symbol
Dorothy's sickness is a symbolic battle because it shows that there are unseen battles that she fights privately. She reports her illnesses, but there isn't anything she can do to communicate what those feel like. Her battle for physical health is also symbolic because it points toward another battle—her fight for joy and mental health in the agony of loss. She struggles to keep her head up, but when she has her brother, she has more energy and more drive.
The final loss
When William continues in his life without her, marrying Mary Hutchinson, Dorothy finds herself alone in Grasmere. She is noticeably disturbed. The involuntary loss of her mother is now overlaid emotionally with the voluntary loss of her brother. She can't process her anger and pain, because it is difficult to admit that she resents her brother's selfishness. Obviously, their family is damaged by the death of their mother, and they need to stick together, she feels. He didn't have to leave her all alone. Now, her suffering seems all the more unmanageable.
