Content warning: The Symbols and Motifs section of this guide includes references to childhood trauma, the death of parents, and descriptions of anxiety, panic attacks, and night terrors.

Anthony’s father Edmund is killed by an allergic reaction to a bee sting, which links bees with death from the very beginning of the novel. Anthony was stung by a bee when he was still quite young, and he was stung high on his collarbone. Kate is later stung in the same place on her body in the gardens at Aubrey Hall. Her bee sting—and Anthony’s attempts to treat the wound—is what brings her and Anthony together in marriage. If it had not happened, Anthony may have married Edwina like he originally planned.

As a young adult, Anthony would swat at bees to provoke them to sting him; despite his efforts to tempt fate, he was never stung. The bee symbolizes the unexpectedness of death: Such a small thing killed a great man, and the trauma of that affected Anthony for years.

Traditionally, weather is never merely weather in literature, as rain often represents transformation, rebirth, and cleansing. The storm when Kate’s mother died marked a major transition point in Kate’s life, as it was the direct cause of her anxiety.