Balbec
The narrator thinks of visiting Venice and Balbec while he was sick. The church in Balbec symbolizes the escape which the narrator wanted from his memories. While lying in his bed, he seems to be overpowered by his past and everything around him reminds him about his childhood and youth. He yearns to return to his past, and the desire to visit these places symbolizes that these places can provide him solace. He thinks of them as restful places which would free him from the agonies of his present life. He laments his life and imagines himself to be roaming in the places of his past.
Lantern
There was a lantern in Marcel’s room when he was a child. It was embellished with various historical and mythical scenes. The lantern symbolizes a world of dreams for the child because he used to stare at it for hours and imagines the stories regarding the creatures on it. The scenes help him in diverting his attention and in assist him in sleeping. He pours himself into the tiniest fragments and thinks about them for hours and create stories. He remembers the Knight Golo moving at a jerky trot on the walls of his bedroom and it was a memory which was created through the instillation on the lantern.
Mother's Kiss
Marcel’s mother used to kiss him before he went to sleep. He was a frightened child, who could not sleep in the dark and who used to wake up again and again in the night. The narrator says, "For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say, I am going to sleep. And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V."
The only solace was his mother's kiss, and it symbolizes the healing power and bliss of a mother. Whenever his mother kisses him, he feels relaxed and brave. It was easier for him to sleep after getting a goodnight kiss than without it. He resents the guests just because he couldn’t get the kiss from his mother owing to their late-night presence. He says, "My sole consolation when I went upstairs for the night was that Mamma would come in and kiss me after I was in bed." The mother’s kiss acts as a medicine to lessen his anxiety and ailment.
Beauty
Beauty is a recurrent motif in the book because Marcel seems to be obsessed by the beauty of both nature and women. Swann is also stunned by the beauty of a woman. Marcel describes his mother in detail when his mother used to narrate the stories at night. He reminisces about Mme de Guermantes that how the lady used to stand out of the house in a graceful way. The memory of the lady when he saw her standing outside her home for the first time, haunts Marcel. He remembers the minute details about the women in his life and adores their beauty.
The sight of Gilberte also haunts him and he remembers his meeting with her in his youth. The beauty of Odette has also been exaggerated by Swann and he compares her with a painting. He was so much obsessed with her beauty that he put his sole focus on chasing her. The beauty of Combray also makes Marcel awestruck at first and then restless because he yearns to go back and enjoy the walks on its paths. He describes the churches, wildlife, local environment and plants in detail which demonstrates his affection towards those beautiful scenes.
