Fire Exit

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.

The symbol of Elizabeth’s stuffed elephant connects to the theme of The Enduring Strength of Family Ties. The toy was initially meant as a present for Elizabeth. Charles attempted to give it to her during the one meeting that Mary allowed between father and daughter. Elizabeth, already exhibiting signs of anxiety at an early age, became distressed and would not accept the toy. Charles, however, kept it, unwilling to let go of an object that, for him, already symbolized parental affection. The elephant thus becomes a symbol of Charles’s enduring love for Elizabeth, which distance and secrets cannot alter. That he has kept the elephant shows Charles’s unwillingness to give up hope that he and Elizabeth might have a relationship someday. 

That hope carried him throughout the recovery process and helps him to maintain his sobriety: He wants to be the person that Fredrick taught him to be, and he wants to mirror for Elizabeth the type of father that Fredrick was for him. Eventually, Charles gives the elephant to his mother, Louise. Her doctors suggest that memory patients fare better when they have something to care for, and in her advancing state of dementia, Louise latches onto the idea of the elephant as her “baby.