Zeena Symbolism Essay

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When Zeena goes out of town for medical treatment, Ethan and Mattie are alone together in the house for the night. The author uses this scene to introduce two other symbols that have importance in the story. The first is the housecat, which is symbolic of Zeena’s presence even while she is away. While the two of them were eating supper, the cat jumps in between them in Zeena’s empty chair. When their hands met on the milk jug, the cat knocked over a pickle dish that was on the table. Mattie begins to cry because Zeena had forbidden her to use that dish. This ended whatever romantic they may have pursued. After supper, as Ethan tried to find ways to be closer to Mattie, “the cat, who had been a puzzled observer of these unusual events, jumped up into Zeena’s chair, rolled into a ball, and lay watching them with narrow eyes” (Frome 37). This line has significant meaning behinding and is really trying to say something else. Attempting to capture a mouse, the cat jumped off the chair and it began to rock, reminding them that Zeena will be rocking in it shortly. It seems as if Zeena shows more affection to the cat than Ethan.
Another symbol with great significance in this scene is the pickle dish mentioned before. It was a wedding gift that Zeena cherishes …show more content…
She bears it carefully from the room as if it were a "dead body." In a symbolic sense, it is - it represents her dead marriage. Her hysterical response marks her first and only expression of real emotion in the novel. On one hand, it is ludicrous that she should set such store by a mere object; on the other, if we assume that Zeena is alive to the symbolism of the dish, we can interpret her grief as arising from the realization that her marriage is no more. But even if the latter is true, she continues to do nothing constructive to inject life into the marriage, and neither does she decisively end it, preferring instead to mourn uselessly over broken
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Words 291 - Pages 2