Grace believed in the idea that a window should be opened when a person dies so that their soul can escape the room. After Mary Whitney’s death, her spirit claims to possess Grace’s body because there was no open window through which she could escape. Flowers are a symbol of life; similarly, women, because of their ability to bear children, often portray fertility. However, the role of flowers in this novel suggests that women have not only the power to create life, but also to embody death. Flowers, which bloom and then wither and die, show that women can be vessels of both life and death.
