The patriarch's daughter
Pelagia is a character whose very nature is oriented around her own private power. A true patriarch's daughter, this young woman was raised to become powerful, to maximize her potential, and to make the most of her life, instructed by a father who freely instructed her with sound advice. The chaos of war riddles that man through a kind of martyrdom to the evil of Mussolini's reign, and that same turn makes Pelagia go through life in a different way than she'd ever imagined. Fate takes her thirst for excellence and success and complicates it with pain and fate until she is ready to sacrifice.
WWII and heroism
The stakes of life are set by WWII in this modern era, so this story's setting is archetypal. In the same way that warfare makes William Wallace a hero in Braveheart, warfare makes everyone in Italy undergo trials and tribulations in a domain of extreme danger and chaotic changes. By the end, Pelagia's father is a martyr and a damaged person, and Pelagia has also been martyred; she was forced to witness her own nature because of war, and although she does not love her first husband, she is ready by the end of the novel to sacrifice for a child that is not hers, a symbol of her growth into heroism.
Guercio as a symbol
Guercio's name has phonetic similarities to two important words, Guernica, which is Picasso's famous and earth-shattering rendering of early 20th century warfare in Spain, and "guerra," which is Italian for warfare. Guercio is indeed a character shaped by warfare. In fact, through his allegorical narrative, the reader analyzes the effects of war on the people who are forced by fate to participate in it. Guercio is a symbol for the way war shapes people through suffering, panic, and intense feelings of moral guilt.
Captain Corelli's reckoning
When Captain Corelli comes to town, the protagonist undergoes a reckoning. The novel reckons Pelagia's character by asking her, "Are you sure you really love your husband? Are you sure you haven't predicated your identity and life on a false belief that you made up so you could get married early?" That challenge is given by Corelli's character on accident, because although she has already professed undying love for her husband, she experiences true love for the first time with Corelli and realizes instantly that she made an ethical compromise to marry someone she did not love, and now she must choose.
Antonia as fate
Antonia is a symbol for potential and fate. When the unplanned daughter is abandoned on Pelagia's doorstep, the now-experienced woman is ready to sacrifice her life to raise the child as her own. This adoption signifies an acceptance of fate, because she is not averse to accepting a tremendous responsibility for virtually no reason. Antonia is also a symbol for the potential that fate might manifest, because as a human child, there is an infinite spectrum of possibilities for how that young daughter might spend her life.
