The shawl

Following Vince's death, Ettie uses her shawl to cover the mirror and stops the clock at the time of his death. To her, the symbolizes the end of life and it is important to her to mark the significance of the event in this way. In a demonstration of the difference between the two characters, Iza takes the shawl off the mirror and wraps it around her mother's shoulders, seeing only the concrete purpose of the item, rather than its symbolic meaning and its importance to Ettie.

Auntie Emma

Auntie Emma, the woman who raised Ettie after her mother died, is a symbol of tradition values. Ettie's personality has been formed as a combination of adopting those values, such as her concern about Iza's relationship with Domokos, and rebelling against them, as in her insistence on the sacred nature of other people's privacy in their...