THREE IMPORTANT SYMBOLS IN THE HOURS

In Michael Cunningham's The Hour and also in the film there are many important symbols like Laura's cake, Richard's armchair and the dead bird.

In this short work I will analyze these three symbols, and they role in the novel, in relation with the characters.

Laura’s Cake

Laura is trying to play her role of perfect housewife, and tries to find her meaning and identity in performing this role in the better way. Laura wants to make the cake for her husband's birthday, to fulfill her desire of meaning in her role of mother, cook, and housewife. He produce the first cake with Richie's help, but when she finish she understand that the cake doesn't represent her concept of beauty and perfection. So after the visit of her friend, she decides to cook  another cake, without her little son's help. Infact she understands that her child's help is an impediment to her will of perfection and her creative abilities. During her husband's birthday party, she becomes furious when this second cake is ruined after that her husband Dan spits on it as he blows out the candles. Everything she will do, Dan and Richie will always be there to ruin  whatever cake she produces. The cake therefore is a symbol of all the limitations that Laura faces through her role as wife and mother. The cake brings Laura to consider the idea that to be artistically, but also morally fulfilled, she will need to throw out these limitations.

Richard’s Chair

Richard’s rotting armchair represents his own slow and inexorable fall towards death. Clarissa tries to maintain her optimism when she face up Richard’s decline to the party, but the chair is a sign she cannot ignore. The importance of the chair is indicated when Clarissa visits Richard. She always tries to remain positive and not falling down in sadness or other similar emotions, but this chair is the indicator about Richard's health that her hopefulness is not resistant to.  The chair therefore can be seen as representing Richard's body. Clarissa wonders at the idea that the human will to live is so strong that even when the body has decayed completely, human beings still have a powerful will to live. She describes the chair as being sick, and Richard clings to it stubbornly. Perhaps if he can hold on the chair, he can hold into hope.

The Dead Bird