The River Thames (Motif)
As Sean Grass writes, "the river, awash in human wreckage, the heart of both the modern metropolis and its capitalist project, sinister and sacramental, a pulsing and undulating presence that crouches at the dark centre of the novel" (Grass, pg. 3). The river is both a source of death and life. Bodies are retrieved from its waters, and Betty Higden follows it as she moves towards her death. However, both John Harmon and Wrayburn are retrieved from the river in order to begin new lives as better men, who can see more clearly and make better choices. The way the waters of the river are constantly in motion, ebbing and flowing, reflects how money, power, and influence move between different sources.
The Dust Heap (Symbol)
The dust heap is the source of the Harmon fortune, but it symbolically shows how wealth and capitalism feed off garbage and are therefore tainted. While wealthy individuals in the novel like to think they are set apart and better than other social classes, they get their money and power from those very individuals they scorn. The wealthy are also predatory scavengers like the rivermen, but their systems of exchange obscure that fact. The dust heaps also symbolize how the past is never truly gone; they contain rubbish that can be dug up, just like how memories of past events continue to haunt people who have experienced those events.
Mr. Wilfer as "Cupid" (Motif)
Mr. Wilfer is referred to repeatedly as Cupid or as a cherub. This motif reflects how his character is sweet, innocent, and focused on making people happy; he is like a perpetual child-figure. However, the motif of Mr. Wilfer being presented as a cherub also implies that he is failing in his duty as the head of the household. Especially as the father of daughters, Mr. Wilfer should be looking out for their welfare and trying to ensure their happiness, but he cannot even stand up to his wife, and seems generally quite helpless. Bella often has to act as if he is the child and she is the parent, and some of her preoccupation with money might be explained by the fact that she has to look out for her own future.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Symbol)
When Boffin hires Silas Wegg to read to him, the first book they start with is Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon was an 18th-century English historian who published his major work in several volumes, ushering in a new age of historical research. The choice of this text symbolizes Boffin's attempt to live up to his new position by grooming himself to appear as a sophisticated and well-read man; he chooses a significant text which many English gentlemen of the era would be familiar with. The text also ironically symbolizes the problems with the era in which the novel is set; much of the narrative reveals London to be a decadent and corrupt society where individuals care only about benefitting themselves. Although Boffin studies Roman history as an artefact of a long-ago time, many of the problems that led to the collapse of this ancient civilization are still present in the world around him.
Dressmaking for the Dolls (Symbol)
Jenny Wren manages to earn a living by making elaborate sets of clothing for fancy dolls. Her occupation symbolizes her strange status caught between child and adult; her focus on dolls suggests a childish preoccupation with toys and the world of the imagination, but Jenny is not the one who is allowed to own or play with dolls. Instead, she works hard so that others can enjoy pleasures she will not get herself. The occupation also symbolizes the gap between social classes, and the role of false appearances. There are people in London who are so wealthy they can afford to buy fancy clothes for inanimate objects, while actual human beings like Jenny, Lizzie, and Betty Higden struggle to survive. The creation of costumes for dolls suggests how appearances can add value and lead to the creation of different roles, just as characters take on different personas throughout the novel.
