49 pages • 1 hour read
Noël CowardBlithe Spirit
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Irving Berlin’s “Always”
Irving Berlin’s “Always” serves as an important plot device in the play. The song was originally written in 1925 as a wedding gift for Berlin’s second wife. In the chorus of the song, Berlin’s pledges his devotion to his wife:
I’ll be loving you always
With a love that’s true always.
When the things you’ve planned
Need a helping hand
I will understand always.
Coward uses these lyrics both sincerely and ironically. Elvira appears to this song and initially seems drawn back to the living world to be with Charles because of her enduring devotion. Yet as the play unfolds, the impossibility of forever love is revealed. During the séance, Charles pleads “in a strained voice” that Madame Arcati not play the song (20). This foreshadows the reality of his first marriage. His loyalty is not everlasting, as Charles rejects Elvira and abandons Ruth, and Elvira reveals the extent of her affair. The play closes with the song playing as the house, representing the happy marriages of Charles, is destroyed by Elvira and Ruth.
Flowers
Elvira uses flowers to assert her presence. This can be on a physical level, like when she moves the flowers to prove to Ruth that she is there. When it appears that Ruth and Elvira have been dematerialized, a vase is the first thing they knock to the ground to show they are still there. The use of flowers is also more metaphorical when Elvira replaces the flowers Ruth has placed in the living room, symbolizing her plan to take Ruth’s place. When discussing the bowl of pansies, Ruth notes that she “did it herself this morning” (42). Charles then asks Elvira to move the bowl, suggesting that Elvira is now in charge of the household. When she initially enters the house the morning after the séance, she “carries grey roses” and “throws the zinnias into the waste-paper basket and puts her roses into the vase” (39). The flowers themselves also reflect Charles’s understanding of the two different women. The roses have romantic and sexual connotations, evocative of Elvira, and, like her, they are gray. The zinnias are a much more mundane flower. This flower switch is ultimately unnoticed by Charles, suggesting that he does not distinguish between the two women as much as he should.
Flowers are also associated with femininity and fragility. Women are given flowers and described as such. Charles has discarded women just as Elvira throws the zinnias in the trash. The flowers are ephemeral, just as the spirits are. Just as Charles’s relationships with women only last for a short while, these flowers too will soon be replaced.
The Car
The transfer of the car reflects Charles’s shifting loyalties. When he is cavorting with Elvira, he has the car, which he “has driven her into Folkestone” with so she could “see an old friend of hers who is staying at the Grand” (45). Later, he sides with Ruth when he learns of Elvira’s plan, and Ruth uses the car to get Madame Arcati rather than Charles using it to take Elvira to the movies. Ruth lies to Elvira, stating that her discussion with Charles had been about “trying to persuade him not to drive you into Folkestone this evening” (60). Ruth’s deception depends on the car functioning as a reflection of Charles’s affection, but Charles’s fickle loyalty has deadly consequences. The ultimate tragedy involving a car accident suggests that Charles’s indecision over or manipulation of these two women leads to Ruth’s death.
