Bad Dreams Symbols

Rat droppings in teacups (an abduction)

Rotting stoat (a stain)

Nasogastric force-feeding of suffragettes (deeds not words)

Highlights the uncanny of suburban life, with the unexpected forever around the corner

Wrought iron bars that seem “suddenly as barbaric as a cage or a portcullis in a castle” (bad dreams)

Goatskin “half reverted to its animal past” (bad dreams)

The family home for the mother being a place of resentment (bad dreams)

Jane being in Nigel’s family home symbolises her lack of control (an abduction)

Marina being in the old man’s family home highlights her lack of power (the stain)

The old man’s family home being “dingy and half furnished” despite having a lavish exterior symbolises the falsity vs reality of instability and lack of control (the stain)

Highlights the hidden emotional violence and unsettling nature that can permeate suburban life

• The locked attic echoes the hidden secrets and the discoveries of Laura’s newfound experiences. (experience)
• - Further, the key to unlocking the attic all the more highlights Laura’s awareness of a world of desire that has hitherto been repressed 
• - The key being “like something in a novel or pantomime” suggests the performative attempts of Laura in emulating Hana to seduce Julian

Attic where ruby discovers reading represents Ruby’s secrets and revelations (her share of sorrow)

An abduction: The abduction of Jane’s childhood and child self, despite conforming to it.

• The stain: highlights the old man’s complete lack of control despite demonstrating such present and prior power to not even clean the stain on his shirt
• Highlights the stain that prefaces Marina’s understanding that “you can’t outdo the knowledge” after confronting unpleasant realities

Deeds not words: Not only is the motto of the suffragette movement, but also demonstrates the lack of power Edith has that though Fitz displays verbally “ appreciation of her”, his actions display his true disregard and lack of care

Bad dreams: Highlights the unfulfilled and dissatisfied lives of the mother, and now the child who is slowly coming to terms with reality

The Jokari set that Jane “discards” yet is “left where she dropped it” (an abduction)

• Moon:
• represents femininity. Without the moon being there that night, represents her loss of agency and femininity, espeically in her loss of formal title changing to "wife" and his staying as "man".
• Further, the moon's phases show her changing in experience, watching it grow past her, especially as she feels she has "left [them] behind." (Ian laughing at her and Graham's "domestic tendencies". Yet, she never moves on - keeping her name as "Greta".

Clothing as a means of transformation e.g. ‘Experience,’ ‘Silk Brocade’

• "Wearing Hana's clothes, I was able [to] perform."
• "Ann believed that [you] could be anyone" with the clothes you were wearing.

Books, particularly as a means of escaping the dissatisfaction of life, or transformation e.g. ‘Her Share of Sorrow,’ ‘Bad Dreams,’ Under the Sign of the Moon’