Cranford
Cranford itself is a symbol and this fact is situated in the opening line of the novel in which the village is described as being in “possession of the Amazons.” This imagery is intentionally misleading and deceptively complex. The connection to the Amazons immediately instills Cranford with a foundation of feminism, but it is also important to keep in mind the Amazons were a warrior women class belonging to a distant past. Cranford winds up being a complicated symbol of progressive feminist authority shaped by old-fashioned conservative ideals.
Attire
Clothing is also complex in its symbolism. The women of Cranford are notable for idiosyncratic style and fashion choices, but these items are attire are chosen to express a persona rather than real actual individual taste. The symbolism here is part and parcel of an overarching tendency among the females of Cranford to present a version of the truth which may not be entirely honest and accurate.
The Railroad
You will find that in a great many novels written about 19th century life—especially those set in conservative and insulated small towns and rural communities—the railroad is a symbol of unwanted progress which intrudes upon tradition and challenges conventional notions of society. That is true here as well, but the symbolism of the locomotive as a harbinger of epochal shifts is especially harsh here. When Captain Brown moves to town, he becomes one of the few men who is embraced and deemed to be actually useful to their society only to be just as suddenly taken away when struck by a train in the process of saving a child from becoming victim.
Marriage
Early in the text, the narrator mentions almost casually that after being away for some time, when she next returns to Cranford there had been no births, deaths, or marriages in the interim. Indeed, Cranford is quite literally spinster city. Although the ceremony is acknowledged with reverence as being “a very solemn thing” that one should never rush into, it is also at times characterized as a “risk” which one should be proud to “escape.” Since most men are considered utterly useless to the average women, the avoidance of marriage is the ultimate symbol of Cranford’s Amazonian brand of throwback feminism.
Sponge-Cakes
A party at Mrs. Forrester’s is highlighted by the serving of tea-bread and sponge-cakes. At one point during the party, a faux pas is committed involving the mention of tea-tray used for the serving of the treats. This faux pas by a servant girl has the effect of awkwardly exposing a truth that would be better left unsaid and, indeed, remains uncommented upon even though “she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew” the truth of the matter. This otherwise singularly unimportant moment in an otherwise forgettable event has the effect of becoming the defining symbolic moment unveiling the secret to smooth living in Crandall. It is perfectly fine to know every secret about every person in town as long as nobody ever actually acknowledges that they know these secrets. This remains true even the terrible secret is as an absurdly soft as admitting one had spend the morning making sponge-cakes.
