Rebecca Smyth

Rebecca Smyth is symbolic of liberation. The narrator fabricates and dons the Rebecca Smyth persona as a disguise in order to infiltrate and investigate Braithwaite's practice. However, the more often she adopts the persona, the more fascinated by and intimate with Rebecca she becomes. Ultimately, she kills her self and fully inhabits Rebecca Smyth, thus freeing herself from the societal and cultural, emotional and psychological strictures that have entrapped her throughout her life.

Notebooks

The narrator's notebooks are symbolic of honesty and truth. Throughout her life, the narrator has learned that she is not allowed to express herself freely. The notebooks grant her the space and the allowance to say, think, and express whatever she likes. She therefore embraces excess and ornament throughout her writings, as the notebooks are the first context in which she is able to present her most authentic version of reality...