Albert Loss

The play on Albert’s name, which references both loss and Coleridge’s albatross, tells us that the figurative albatross around Filth’s neck is loss. The albatross from Coleridge’s poem has become shorthand for a psychological burden, something unpleasant that must be carried through life, and loss and loneliness plagues Filth throughout his life.

Tulip Bulbs

Tulips commonly symbolize love, but Betty (and her death) are associated only with tulip bulbs, suggesting that Betty's love is hidden or unable to bloom fully. She dies amongst her tulip bulbs, thinking that she would never now get any closer to Filth, her husband of many years; she dies without children, having just hidden the pearls Veneering gave her, the evidence of her affair, in the garden. She never gets to watch her tulips bloom, just as perhaps she has never had the chance to fully...