After viewing the film The Hours, I've come to realize how this movie is rich in symbolism. The images and the symbols seen throughout the movie reflect on how three different women in various eras go on about their daily lives feeling imprisoned. Some of the images and symbols that have been identified throughout the movie include: children, water, light, the manner in which a character falls out of a window, food (eggs), flowers, a cake, and passionate kisses.
In this movie, the children are startled by puzzling images for which they are unable to comprehend. It is for this reason why the children represent innocence in this film. In literature, water is usually associated with baptism, rebirth and renewal. In this film however, Laura Brown is seen submerged under water because she feels she is drowning in a lifeless marriage. She even desires to abandon and escape from her family. Virginia Woolf is also another woman that is seen drowning herself under water as an attempt to escape from her prison that others call her sorrowful life. Light is a symbol of freedom, openness and hope. Richard who has isolated himself from all of his loved ones due to an illness he has, eventually decides to open up and free himself. He does this by removing all of the covers from his windows and letting in the sunlight. After he tells Clarissa that he has stayed alive for her and that it was time for her to let him go, he allows himself to fall out of the window. The manner in which he falls while all of the light surrounds his body, makes me feel like he finally felt a sense of hopefulness. His slow and graceful fall also reminds me of a bird that has just been liberated from a cage, in the same way that Richard has released himself from isolation and depression.
Food, eggs in particular, have also been a symbol seen during the course of this movie. Eggs are a symbol of life, and when Clarissa is seen cracking the eggs, this is symbolic of how fragile and shattered her life is. She also begins separating the yoke with her hands, which also happens to be symbolic of how she feels her life slipping through her fingers. Flowers are a constant symbol in the movie, and are usually associated with hope, cheerfulness, and a bright new life. An example of how flowers were used in the movie would be when Clarissa decides to go to the florist shop. When the florist asks if Clarissa wants lilies and she replies no, they are too morbid, it is no coincidence that Clarissa desires bright, colorful and cheerful flowers. Laura's cake for her husband's birthday, is another symbol. She decides to make the cake as a way to be viewed as the "perfect housewife." However, Laura felt that the first cake she baked was ruined, just like her marriage and her life in general. She feels bound, limited and out of place, and no matter how hard she tries to please her family and satisfy them, it never seems to be enough. The three female protagonists in the film have been seen giving passionate kisses to other women. This could be viewed as a sort of defiance or rebellion against their prolonged, ordinary and melancholic lives. The one thing that all of these women have in common is to be caretakers of some kind of man. It is for that reason why they feel trapped and suffocated by men, and they each search for ways to escape and throw off the chains that bind them.
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