The metaphor of the geographer’s compass
The geographer's compass is a metaphor that signifies that the prince's journey is eternal. After traveling for years, the prince never accomplished his mission of covering the kingdom. The prince says, "Sometimes I think that my geographer’s compass has gone mad and believing that we’re always proceeding southward, in reality maybe we’re going around in circles, without ever augmenting the distance that separates us from the capital; this could explain why we still haven’t reached the border limits.”
The naming of the seven messengers
The naming of the seven messengers is an allegory that shows that the prince will get old and lose his memory while traversing his father's throne. To help him remember his history, he names his messengers according to alphabetical order. The prince says, "To distinguish them, I gave them names with alphabetically progressive initials: Alessandro, Bartolomeo, Caio, Domenico, Ettore, Federico, Gregorio. Not used to being far from home, I sent the first one, Alessandro, during the evening of our second day of travel, when we had already covered about eighty leagues.”
The Vanity of Life
The prince's journey to explore his father's kingdom shows the metaphor of life's Vanity. After getting lost in the exploration, the Kind dies, and the throne is given to the prince's brother. Consequently, the prince loses his sense of life. The prince says, "Nevertheless, go, Domenico, and do not tell me that I am cruel! Bring my last greetings to the city where I was born. You are the surviving link with the world that was mine one time. The most recent news had informed me that many things have changed, that my father is dead, that the Crown had passed to my older brother, that they consider me lost, that they had constructed high stone palaces where before there were oak trees, under which I used to go and play.”
