The perpetually darkened sun, or daysdeath, symbolizes the absence of divine grace; it is the physical manifestation of a morally decayed, godless world. The description of the sun as “no brighter than a dying candle” signals a fundamental break in the natural order that jeopardizes the characters’ very survival by causing widespread crop failure and deepening the cold of winter (27). More than this, however, the failure of the natural order suggests to many that God has abandoned his creation, not least because the perpetual darkness allows supernatural evils like vampirism and the Blight to flourish unchecked. This permanent twilight is thus the backdrop for the theme of The Fallibility of Faith in a Godless World, as characters question a God who would allow such a horror to persist. At the same time, the novel suggests that the despair daysdeath evokes is its own source of evil; Chloe’s desperation to restore light, for example, culminates in her willingness to kill an innocent girl. The physical darkness of the world thus reflects the spiritual darkness infecting both vampires and those who seek to end their reign.

In this sense, daysdeath is also the ultimate symbol of a world where traditional notions of good and evil, light and dark, have become blurred, developing the theme of