Fire (symbol)
The book has a tragic moment, which drastically changes life of three sisters. Adeline decides to burn Emmeline’s baby because of her stupid jealousy. Fortunately, Vida hides the child, but Adeline still sets a fire with her full resentment and anger. The whole Angelfield estate burns to the ground together with Adeline. However, Vida is not sure who of twins died. Therefore, Vida pretends Adeline. The fire symbolizes jealous, death and many secrets of the Angelfield estate, which sisters can hide.
Welcome to the fairy tale (allegory)
The life of Vida Winter and her twin sisters is an allegory of the evil fairy tale. There is a prince (Charlie Angelfield), but he is cruel and mentally unstable. He cuts out the name of the lady-love on his body and he rapes girls on his path. There is also a princess (Isabelle Angelfield). She is beautiful, but vicious and loses her mind. She loves men and it does not matter if he is her brother. There is a castle (the Angelfield estate), which is gloomy, neglected, has many ghosts, but not abandoned. The Angelfield village is an exact antithesis of the fairy tale, because there are jealous, anger, violence and death.
Hunting for the past (motif)
In this book, several characters try to learn and search some information about their life and family. Vida Winter narrates her past in the estate of Angelfield and its inhabitants. She delves into her past to remember her origin of life. Margaret Lea also remembers her past life. She often thinks about her twin sister, who died. Her past does not let her go, because she misses her sister. Aurelius cannot stop thinking about his family that he does not know. His origin of life is unknown to him. Every story about the past creates the main motif of the novel.
The Q mark (Symbol)
It’s the mark on Vida’s hand. It has a particular shape, similar to the Q letter. In the end, Margaret understands that Vida hurt herself the night Angelfield was destroyed: the shape is that of a key Vida touched during the fire.
The girl with red hair (symbol)
Telling her story, Vida reveals to Margaret why she has been so prolific. She tells her that every time she stops writing, a girl with red hair appears to her. She haunts Vida, waiting for her moment to be chosen as a character of her stories. Later in the book we understand that the little girl is in fact Vida herself as a child or more precisely she is Shadow, the person Vida used to be before the Angelfield’s fire. She is her past that has to be faced.
